Clarence Thomas and wife Ginni lead Supreme Court Justices and their spouses at the funeral of Sandra Day O’Connor: Biden joins Washington’s elite at memorial for first woman to serve on the bench

Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni sat with other Supreme Court justices Tuesday at the funeral of the late Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden arrived late at the Washington National Cathedral, flying from Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday morning after marking the deaths of his late wife and daughter during a private Mass on Monday.

Biden ignored questions from reporters as he walked into the White House residence and told them he had to go to the funeral.

O'Connor died on December 1 at the age of 93 after a years-long battle with dementia. By 2018, she had withdrawn from public life.

O'Connor was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, unanimously confirmed to the Senate and served from 1981 to January 2006, where she retired to care for her husband who had Alzheimer's disease.

President Joe Biden delivered remarks Tuesday morning at the Washington National Cathedral for the funeral of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court

President Joe Biden sat in the front row of the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday for the funeral of Sandra Day O'Connor, the nation's first female Supreme Court justice.

Members of the Supreme Court attended the funeral of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, including (from left) Neil Gorsuch, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Samuel Alito, Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, Jane Sullivan, wife of Chief Justice John Roberts

A hearse carrying the casket of Judge Sandra Day O'Connor arrives at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday for the funeral of the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court

Biden, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, recalled O'Connor's ascension to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I was the ranking member of that committee and the business of that day was momentous: the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor,” Biden recalled. “Becoming the first woman in American history to serve as a Supreme Court Justice of the United States Supreme Court.”

The president noted that she was a “daughter of the American West” — growing up on the Lazy B Ranch in Arizona — who was a “pioneer” in her own right.

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor died on December 1 at the age of 93

The former attorney was a moderate conservative and considered a tie-breaking vote under former Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

During her time in office, she was often referred to as the “most powerful woman in the country.”

She often sided with her conservative colleagues on the court — as she did in Bush v. Gore, in which she handed the 2000 presidential election to Republican President George W. Bush before a recount was completed — but she also sometimes sided with of liberals.

She upheld the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

In what now seems liberal since last summer's Dobbs decision, O'Connor was a key architect when the Supreme Court upheld Roe v. Wade in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The case affirmed Roe's central conclusion, which was that the Constitution protected the right to privacy and therefore the right to abortion.

But it also changed how and when women could exercise that right.

The Casey decision stated that women could have an abortion up to the point of viability — the point at which a fetus could survive outside the womb — and that the state could not impose an “unreasonable burden” on access to abortion.

However, that still opened the door for states to implement abortion restrictions starting in the first trimester of pregnancy.

The Dobbs decision overturned both Roe and Casey.