Scoring · Jurists
O'Connor, Sandra Day
1930–2023
Library of Congress (Transferred by Sven Manguard,. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
O'Connor's defining jurisprudence — Casey's preservation of Roe's core, Grutter's race-conscious admissions, Lawrence-era centrism, and her iCivics work132 — reads as moderating, pluralism-preserving conservatism. Abbott runs hard against the O'Connor frame on abortion, church-state, LGBTQ, and civics pluralism; Hinojosa's no-votes and Public Benefit Corporations bill are the closer fit.
Issue
Abbott
Hinojosa
Casey / abortion (SB 8, trigger ban)
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
O'Connor co-authored Casey's preservation of Roe's core right; Abbott's SB 836 and trigger ban are direct repudiations of that framework, while Hinojosa's no-votes track the O'Connor strand.
Church-state separation (SB 10/11/763)
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
O'Connor's centrism on Establishment Clause cases preserved a working church-state line; Abbott's signed SB 10/11/763 package44 runs hard against it, while Hinojosa's no-votes defend the O'Connor strand.
LGBTQ pluralism (SB 14/15/12, DFPS directive)
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
iCivics-style civic institutional invention
—
Helps
Abbott: — · Hinojosa: Helps
O'Connor's post-Court iCivics work emphasized institution-building for civic education; Hinojosa's Public Benefit Corporations bill is exactly the kind of moderating civic-institutional invention O'Connor would celebrate. Abbott has not advanced a comparable civic-institutional innovation.
Federalism / property-rights strand
Helps
—
Abbott: Helps · Hinojosa: —
O'Connor's federalism jurisprudence (Lopez, Printz) was the conservative strand of her record; Abbott picks up partial O'Connor credit on the federalism-and-property-rights strand, while Hinojosa's federal-Medicaid-expansion preference is silent on this specific O'Connor lane.
Grutter narrowly-tailored race-conscious admissions
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
O'Connor's Grutter opinion preserved narrowly-tailored race-conscious admissions on diversity grounds; Abbott has aligned with the post-Grutter rollback (including his AG-era posture against UT-Austin admissions practices), while Hinojosa's record on equal-protection bills sits closer to the O'Connor middle ground.
2022 DFPS investigation directive
Hurts
Helps
Abbott: Hurts · Hinojosa: Helps
O'Connor's Lawrence-era centrism treated state intervention into private family decisions as constitutionally suspect; Abbott's 2022 DFPS investigation directive treating gender-affirming care as child abuse93 is the maximalist opposite of that O'Connor posture, while Hinojosa's HB 73 and her no-votes on the SB 14/15/12 cluster sit in the O'Connor middle.
Sources
- Gina Hinojosa for Texas Governor, official campaign priorities page, accessed May 2026. (full list)
- Eleanor Klibanoff, 'Gov. Greg Abbott signs into law one of nation's strictest abortion bans,' Texas Tribune, May 19, 2021. (full list)
- Texas Tribune, 'Ten Commandments in Texas schools: SB 10 explained,' May 24, 2025. (full list)
- Eleanor Klibanoff, 'Texas bans gender-affirming care for trans minors,' Texas Tribune, June 2, 2023. (full list)
- Texas AFT, 'SB 12, the Parents Bill of Rights, deep dive,' 2025 — pronoun, DEI, and GSA provisions. (full list)
- Sandra Day O'Connor, jurisprudence as the Court's pivotal centrist; iCivics; Planned Parenthood v. Casey concurrence. (full list)