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.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNORI 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.
More Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
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Historically courts in this country have been insulated. We do not look beyond our borders for precedents.
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I don’t think it’s the court’s perceived role to do some explaining of a political nature.
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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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My hope is that 10 years from now, after I’ve been across the street at work for a while, they’ll all be glad they gave me that wonderful vote.
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How dare you make my life a felony.
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If I stumbled badly in doing the job, I think it would have made life more difficult for women, and that was a great concern of mine and still is.
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I have always thought that while it’s wonderful to be the first to do something, you don’t want to be the last.
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What was a problem was the excessive amount of media attention to the appointment of the first woman and everything she did. Everywhere that Sandra went, the press was sure to go. And that got tiresome; it was stressful.
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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.
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I think it’s inevitable that some of the court’s decisions will be found by a segment of the public to be not the right decision or subject to criticism.
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The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender
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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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I tried to decide each case based on the law and the Constitution.
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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.
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Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
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