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William proposed. Sandra said no. They reunited on the Supreme Court.

Decades before they would serve together on the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor were engaged in a different type of courtship.

The two grew close while attending Stanford Law School — they regularly shared notes and eventually became a couple. Although Sandra Day, as she was known then, eventually broke up with Rehnquist and married a different Stanford Law classmate, John O’Connor, an author recently revealed to NPR that she first turned down a marriage proposal from Rehnquist, the future chief justice, in the early 1950s.

Rehnquist graduated a semester early and went to Washington for a Supreme Court clerkship. In a letter to Day, who had already begun dating John O’Connor, Rehnquist said he wanted to see her and discuss “important things,” author Evan Thomas told NPR on Wednesday.

Read entire article at The Washington Post