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Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Sandra Day O'Connor, born on March 26, 1930, is a notable former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court and is recognized for her conservative judicial philosophy and significant contributions to landmark decisions.

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Famous Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

“A moment of silence is not inherently religious.”

Moments Religious Silence Silence Is Moment Of Silence

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“A state of war is not a blank check... when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens.”

War States Nations Rights Citizens Checks Blank Blank Check

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Young Lawyer Professors Naive Stanford

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Each of us brings to our job, whatever it is, our lifetime of experience and our values.”

Jobs Values Lifetime

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Historically courts in this country have been insulated. We do not look beyond our borders for precedents.”

Looks Has Beens Country Court Borders Precedent

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“I don't know that there are any short cuts to doing a good job.”

Knows Jobs Cutting Good Job Good Day Short Cuts

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“I sort of thought the framers of the Constitution were talking about the rights of individuals, not corporate entities.”

Individual Talking Rights Constitution Corporate Entity Framers

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“I tried to decide each case based on the law and the Constitution.”

Law Cases Constitution

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“I wanted to be a cattle rancher when I was young, because it was what I knew and I loved it.”

Wanted Young Cattle Ranchers

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Ifs Way Children Parent Example Better Ways Civics Instill

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Want Children Issues Months Agree

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“My concern was whether I could do the job of a justice well enough to convince the nation that my appointment was the right move.”

Wells Enough Jobs Moving Nations Justice Concern Convince Appointments

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The destiny of the woman must be shaped to a large extent on her own conception of her spiritual imperative and her place in society.”

Spiritual Destiny Conception Imperatives

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The freedom to criticize judges and other public officials is necessary to a vibrant democracy.”

Democracy Judging Officials Criticize Sanctions Intimidation Public Officials

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The members of the court were just delighted to have a ninth member - male or female. They were all kind and welcoming.”

Kind Members Female Court Males Welcome All Kinds Delighted

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The more education a woman has, the wider the gap between men's and women's earnings for the same work.”

Men Gaps Earning Bridging The Gap

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The No Child Left Behind Program was an incentive to the schools to get their kids up to snuff on math and science and reading.”

Children Kids School Reading Left Behinds Program Math Incentives Left Behind Math And Science Snuff No Child Left Behind

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“There was no hostility at the court when I arrived.”

Court Hostility

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Despite the encouraging and wonderful gains and the changes for women which have occurred in my lifetime, there is still room to advance and to promote correction of the remaining deficiencies and imbalances.”

Stills Rooms Wonderful Gains Lifetime Despite Corrections Deficiency Imbalance

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Nations Felt Clear Paper Constitution Independent Critical Elsewhere Papers Judiciary Federalist Federalist Papers Framers Independent Judiciary

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Problem Democracy Judging Healthy Criticism Officials Destructive Criticize Replaced Sanctions Intimidation Public Officials

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Firsts Problem Attention Media Amount Presses Stressful Appointments Tiresome

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

“Commitment to the rule of law provides a basic assurance that people can know what to expect whether what they do is popular or unpopular at the time.”

People Knows Law Commitment Assurance Rule Of Law

Author: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.”

States Care Progress Streets Changed Picks March I Care Legislature Arizona Statutes

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“I had become increasingly concerned in recent years about the lack of civics education in our nation's schools. In recent years, the schools have stopped teaching it. And it's unfortunate.”

Years School Nations Teaching Concerned Unfortunate Civics

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Care Ability Watches Husband Disease Take Care My Husband Decline Heartbreaking Alzheimer Alzheimer's

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“I think we may be seeing the beginnings of a resurgence of civic-mindedness in this country. Hopefully the younger generations, which came out in record numbers during the last presidential election, will pass their enthusiasm on to their children.”

Thinking May Children Country Lasts Numbers Records Seeing Generations Election Enthusiasm Hopefully Presidential Civics Younger Generation Presidential Election Resurgence

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

People Trying Important Helping Action Decision Judging Criticism Critical Stem Framework Retaliation

Author: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.”

Too Much Focus Minutes Media Changed Court One Woman Another Woman

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Justice Ginsburg is a very competent justice, and it is a joy to have her on the court, but particularly for me it is a pleasure to have a second woman on the court.”

Joy Justice Pleasure Court Insecurity Competent

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Most high courts in other nations do not have discretion, such as we enjoy, in selecting the cases that the high court reviews. Our court is virtually alone in the amount of discretion it has.”

Nations Enjoy Cases Amount Court Reviews Discretion

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

World Wells House Nations Special Court Around The World Comparison Special Places Jurists

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Occasionally we have to interpret an international treaty - one, perhaps, affecting airlines and liability for injury to passengers or damage to goods. Then, of course, we have to look to the precedents of other member nations in resolving issues.”

Looks Courses Nations Issues Members International Damage Injury Goods Airline Treaties Passengers Precedent Liability

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“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.”

Writing Sometimes States Sides United Cases United States Issues Amount Letters Enormous Abortion Mail Chamber

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“When I went to law school, which after all was back in the dark ages, we never looked beyond our borders for precedents. As a state court judge, it never would have occurred to me to do so, and when I got to the Supreme Court, it was very much the same. We just didn't do it.”

States Age School Law Dark Judging Court Supreme Borders Supreme Court Dark Ages Precedent Law School Court Judges

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?”

Wells States Difficult Church Answers Trade Boundaries Church And State Separation Of Church And State Separation Between Church And State Difficult Questions

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come.”

Play Women Family Roles Generations Training Feminist Critical Empowering Our Society Units Family Unit

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Be aware that even before you have reached your ultimate professional destination, if you always strive for excellence, you can and should have a substantial impact on the world in which you live.”

Ifs World Should Inspiring Should Have Ultimate Impact Excellence Strive Destination Graduation Impact On The World

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“I think I learned to appreciate and treasure each day, because you don't know how many you're going to be given.”

Thinking Knows Given Know How Gratitude Appreciate Treasure Each Day

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.”

Sports Leadership Dragons Procrastination Delay Slaying Funny Procrastination

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.”

Politics Difficult Religious Rooms Liberty Serious Threat Silent Thoughtful Seriousness Religious Liberty

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“How dare you make my life a felony.”

Gay Dare Lgbt Felony

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“(W)e do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.”

Firsts Religion Atheism Amendments First Amendment

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed.”

Ifs Wells May Innocent Statistics Allowing Death Penalty Indication

Author: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.”

Reality Government Action Acting Practice Effects Response Unhappy Discrimination Persistence Unfortunate Affirmative Action Affirmative Lingering Racial Discrimination

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

Years Use Today Action Interest Preference Approved Affirmative Action Affirmative

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender”

Depends Argument Court Gender

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.”

Liberty Doubt Refuge Jurisprudence

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

“The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but ‘[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.' To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate. It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art.”

Mean Art Ideas Ends Government Results Progress Information Expression Labor Originals Rewards Objectives Primaries Unfortunate Unfair Art And Science Copyright

Author:Sandra Day O'Connor

About the Author

Born: March 26, 1930
Known for: Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Quotes: 116

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