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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.

Sandra Day O'Connor

The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Argument Court Gender
I loved my husband very much, and it was heartbreaking to have him develop Alzheimer’s disease, and to stand by and watch him decline in his ability to take care of himself.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Ability Alzheimer Heartbreaking Husband
Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Doubt Jurisprudence Liberty
The unhappy persistence of both the practice and the lingering effects of racial discrimination …is an unfortunate reality…and the government is not disqualified from acting in response to it.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Government Persistence Reality
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.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Country House Special System World
We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Approved Today Use Years
And I went off to Stanford, I was pretty young and pretty naive. And I had a professor I really loved, who was himself a lawyer.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Lawyers Professors Young
[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.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Decision Past Tough
[G]overnment endorsement . . . of religion . . . sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Church Community Political
Historically courts in this country have been insulated. We do not look beyond our borders for precedents.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Borders Country Looks
Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Leadership Procrastination Sports
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.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Majority might Politics Value
The fact is that knowledge about the Constitution and the Court is not something that is handed down through the gene pool; every generation has to learn it. And I’m not sure the recent generations have done that good a job of learning about it.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Constitution Done Pool
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'CONNOR

Justice Philosophy Waiting
It 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.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Government Successful Two
Unfortunately civility is hard to codify or legislate, but you know it when you see it. It’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR

Civility Conflict Manners

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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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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Popular Authors

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