I finally gave up my little law practice and stayed home for about three years. You have to do what you can to keep the family going. But I wanted to get back to work. So I got another babysitter and went to work as an Assistant Attorney General.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNORThe power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender
More Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
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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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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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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.
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Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.
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I think people know very little, really, about the court, how it works and its history. And both of those things are important in our country, but they’re not things that most citizens know much about.
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Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.
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I like to think that the court will continue to be held in high regard by the public. I think it should be.
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If parents instill a sense of civic-mindedness – and there is no better way to do that than by example – their children will probably follow.
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[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.
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If a State refused to let religious groups use facilities open to others, then it would demonstrate not neutrality but hostility toward religion.
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Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
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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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Each justice hires their own clerks, and applications are made individually to the justices. It isn’t a group decision.
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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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