Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
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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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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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Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.
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I need to retire from retirement.
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The Constitution does not protect the sovereignty of States for the benefit of the States or state governments as abstract political entities, or even for the benefit of the public officials governing the States. To the contrary, the Constitution divides authority between federal and state governments for the protection of individuals.
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The courts of this country should not be the places where resolution of disputes begins. They should be the places where the disputes end after alternative methods of resolving disputes have been considered and tried.
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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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I think the important thing about my appointment is not that I will decide cases as a woman, but that I am a woman who will get to decide cases.
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Apparently a great many people have forgotten that the framers of our Constitution went to such great effort to create an independent judicial branch that would not be subject to retaliation by either the executive branch or the legislative branch because of some decision made by those judges.
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The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy.
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The abortion cases produced an enormous amount of mail to my chambers, vastly more than to the other chambers, I am sure. I sometimes thought there wasn't a woman in the United States who didn't write me a letter on one side or the other of that issue.
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I wanted to be a cattle rancher when I was young, because it was what I knew and I loved it.
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The proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.
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The framers of the Constitution were so clear in the federalist papers and elsewhere that they felt an independent judiciary was critical to the success of the nation.
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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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I sort of thought the framers of the Constitution were talking about the rights of individuals, not corporate entities.
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Being a member of the court is a lot like walking through fresh concrete. Do you remember doing that as a child and leaving a footprint and it hardens after you? I'm afraid that's what we do and we look back and we see those opinions we've written and they've sort of hardened after us.
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It is true that many Americans find the Commandments in accord with their personal beliefs. But we do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.
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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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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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Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment.
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Half the states have stopped making civics and government a requirement for high school. Half.
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The really expert riders of horses let the horse know immediately who is in control, but then they guide the horse with loose reins and very seldom use the spurs. So it was with our chief William Rehnquist. He guided us with loose reins and used the spurs only rarely to get us up to speed with our work.
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The prima facie evidence provision in this case ignores all of the contextual factors that are necessary to decide whether a particular cross burning is intended to intimidate. The First Amendment does not permit such a shortcut.