President Joe Biden honored the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at a funeral service Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral, celebrating her legacy as an “American pioneer.”

Biden said that O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, “empowered generations of women” and demonstrated that “a woman can not only do anything a man can do, but many times do it a heck of a lot better.”

Speaking to pews full of members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and White House officials, Biden recalled O’Connor as “gracious and wise, civil and principled.” He said she profoundly believed the Supreme Court was a “vital line of defense for the values and the vision of our republic — devoted not to pursuit of power for power’s sake, but to make real promise of America.”

The president applauded O’Connor for “the sacred cause of democracy she devoted her life to,” calling it “one that we must continue.”