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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.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
This chance will stand before you only once.
Sandra Day O'Connor
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If you take a position under the Constitution that is against the majority view, you have to explain it well enough that maybe you can persuade some of that majority to agree with you.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
So how as a nation can we sit around and eat Mexican food, and drink beer and make friends? That's the question. If we can do that on a broader scale, I think we'll come out of it all right.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
The purpose prong of the Lemon test requires that a government activity have a secular purpose. That requirement is not satisfied, however, by the mere existence of some secular purpose, however dominated by religious purposes... The proper inquiry under the purpose prong of Lemon, I submit, is whether the government intends to convey a message of endorsement or disapproval of religion.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
I think most people didn't want to do court duty.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
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.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
A moment of silence is not inherently religious.
Sandra Day O'Connor
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Parents should continue to become more involved with their communities, and more involved in their children's education.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
The fact is that knowledge about the Constitution and the Court is not something that is handed down through the gene pool; every generation has to learn it. And I'm not sure the recent generations have done that good a job of learning about it.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
The whole idea of a public education was to train young people about how our system of government works, so they could be good citizens and be part of it. We're not doing that today.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
I care very much about women and their progress. I didn’t go march in the streets, but when I was in the Arizona Legislature, one of the things that I did was to examine every single statute in the state of Arizona to pick out the ones that discriminated against women and get them changed.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
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.
Sandra Day O'Connor
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I don't know how a judge can concentrate on being fair and impartial when he or she is faced with possible jail time for making a decision that others deem incorrect.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
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.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
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'Connor -
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.
Sandra Day O'Connor -
Each of us brings to our job, whatever it is, our lifetime of experience and our values.
Sandra Day O'Connor