How dare you make my life a felony.
SANDRA DAY O'CONNORLiberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
More Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
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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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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.
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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.
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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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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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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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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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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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It was better for me when I was joined at the court by a second woman. When I was there alone, there was too much media focus on the one woman, and the minute we got another woman, that changed.
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Unfortunately civility is hard to codify or legislate, but you know it when you see it. It’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
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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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Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.
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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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We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation.
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