I’m not on the court anymore, so no use looking for my philosophy. If somebody’s waiting for that, they can wait for another justice.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNORIt matters enormously to a successful democratic society like ours that we have three branches of government, each with some independence and some control over the other two. Thats set out in the Constitution.
More Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
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It is a measure of the framers’ fear that a passing majority might find it expedient to compromise 4th Amendment values that these values were embodied in the Constitution itself.
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It is true that as you have children, there are a good many months when you don’t want to be working full-time. I agree that that’s an issue.
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We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation.
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Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
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Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.
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The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy. The problem comes when healthy criticism is replaced with more destructive intimidation and sanctions.
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Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.
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(W)e do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.
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We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.
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If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.
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I’m a judge. It seemed to me that it was critical to try to take action to stem the criticism and help people understand that in the constitutional framework, it’s terribly important not to have a system of retaliation against decisions people don’t like.
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[Court] is an institution that depends on making tough decisions in close cases for reasons that it explains well and that, in the past at least, have proven satisfactory to the public.
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Despite the encouraging and wonderful gains and the changes for women which have occurred in my lifetime, there is still room to advance and to promote correction of the remaining deficiencies and imbalances.
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I think I learned to appreciate and treasure each day, because you don’t know how many you’re going to be given.
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My sense is that jurists from other nations around the world understand that our court occupies a very special place in the American system, and that the court is rather well regarded in comparison, perhaps, to their own.
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