I have always thought that while it’s wonderful to be the first to do something, you don’t want to be the last.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNORWe expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.
More Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
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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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I do not believe it is the function of the judiciary to step in and change the law because the times have changed. I do well understand the difference between legislating and judging. As a judge, it is not my function to develop public policy.
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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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How dare you make my life a felony.
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Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.
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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.
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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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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 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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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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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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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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The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender
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The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy.
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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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