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. Sandra Day O'Connor More Quotes by Sandra Day O'Connor More Quotes From Sandra Day O'Connor If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed. Sandra Day O'Connor death-penalty statistics may The proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it. Sandra Day O'Connor judiciary roles law 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 constitution majority views Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person. Sandra Day O'Connor women family nature The more education a woman has, the wider the gap between men's and women's earnings for the same work. Sandra Day O'Connor gaps earning men 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. Sandra Day O'Connor democracy healthy judging Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result. Sandra Day O'Connor influence-and-power party taken It's hard to have little children and a job and career at the same time. There is no time left for you as a woman. Sandra Day O'Connor careers jobs children 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. Sandra Day O'Connor court-judges dark school 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 majority politics might My hope is that 10 years from now, after I've been across the street at work for a while, they'll all be glad they gave me that wonderful vote. Sandra Day O'Connor politics hope years A state of war is not a blank check... when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens. Sandra Day O'Connor citizens rights war 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. Sandra Day O'Connor constitution independent paper 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 persistence government reality 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. Sandra Day O'Connor country people thinking You have citizens who don't understand how government works and they're kind of soured on it. All they do is criticize. They have no idea that they can make things happen. Sandra Day O'Connor citizens government ideas 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 decision judging people What the framers of the Constitution tried to achieve when they wrote that Constitution back in the 1700s was an independent federal judiciary. They wanted federal judges to be appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and to serve for good behavior. Sandra Day O'Connor independent judging advice My concerns through the years increased about the concerns of an independent judiciary and how we maintain it. Certainly in the states. I'm a product of state government in my own state of Arizona. And it seemed to me that the popular election of judges was creating major problems in many states, and we had improved the system in Arizona. And I thought the nation ought to at least rethink how we select our nation's trial judges in the states. Sandra Day O'Connor creating independent government We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today. Sandra Day O'Connor use today years
