68+ Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes On Affirmative Action, Fair And Balanced

Sandra Day O'Connor was an American jurist and the first woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and served until her retirement in 2006. Her opinions helped shape the law in many areas, including gender equality, the separation of powers, and the role of the judiciary in protecting individual rights. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Sandra Day O'Connor on affirmative action, fair, balanced.

Top 10 Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

1. The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community.
2. 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.
3. We don't accomplish anything in this world alone.
4. Unfortunately civility is hard to codify or legislate, but you know it when you see it. It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
5. 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.
6. How dare you make my life a felony.
7. This chance will stand before you only once.
8. The power I exert on the court depends on the power of the power of my arguments, not my gender
9. I don't know that there are any short cuts to doing a good job.
10. The proper role of the judiciary is one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.

Sandra Day O'Connor Short Quotes

• A moment of silence is not inherently religious.
• Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
• Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.
• Cyberspace undeniably reflects some form of geography.
• (W)e do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.
• Suppose you had a cross burning in a play or a movie... Would that be intimidating?
• I think most people didn't want to do court duty.
• I didn't want to be out of order answering any questions.

Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes About Politics

I don't think it's the court's perceived role to do some explaining of a political nature. — Sandra Day O'Connor

We hold that the reckless disregard for human life implicit in knowingly engaging in criminal activity known to carry a grave risk of death represents a highly culpable mental state that may be taken into account in making a capital sentencing judgment not inevitable, lethal result. — Sandra Day O'Connor

[G]overnment endorsement . . . of religion . . . sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community. — Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes About Family

The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come. — Sandra Day O'Connor

Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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. — Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes About Difficult

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? — 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

It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren. — Sandra Day O'Connor

Sandra Day O'Connor Famous Quotes And Sayings

It matters enormously to a successful democratic society like ours that we have three branches of government, each with some independence and some control over the other two. Thats set out in the Constitution. — Sandra Day O'Connor

I do not believe it is the function of the judiciary to step in and change the law because the times have changed. I do well understand the difference between legislating and judging. As a judge, it is not my function to develop public policy. — 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 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. — 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

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

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

Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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

If statistics are any indication, the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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

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

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

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

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. — 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

In my work a good library is essential. It enables me to learn the background and previous discussions of the various issues I am called upon to decide. It provides the stability and continuity for the rule of law. — Sandra Day O'Connor

A fundamental premise of American democratic theory is that government exists to serve the people. ... Public records are one portal through which the people observe their government, ensuring its accountability, integrity, and equity while minimizing sovereign mischief and malfeasance — 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

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. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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. — Sandra Day O'Connor

I like to think that the court will continue to be held in high regard by the public. I think it should be. — Sandra Day O'Connor

[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. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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. — Sandra Day O'Connor

If a State refused to let religious groups use facilities open to others, then it would demonstrate not neutrality but hostility toward religion. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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

I think I learned to appreciate and treasure each day, because you don't know how many you're going to be given. — Sandra Day O'Connor

I suspect that over time we will rely increasingly, or take notice at least increasingly, on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues. [Doing so] may not only enrich our own country's decisions, I think it may create that all important good impression. — Sandra Day O'Connor

Historically, it took a long time before the court took any women law clerks. Finally, it did, but the numbers have never matched very effectively the percentages of law graduates out of graduating classes. We have far more than we ever did before and it's continued to grow, but it isn't a nice match yet. — Sandra Day O'Connor

We don’t accomplish anything in the world alone and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry off one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that create something. — Sandra Day O'Connor

Yes, I will bring the understanding of a woman to the Court, but I doubt that alone will affect my decisions. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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

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. — 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. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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

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

Each justice hires their own clerks, and applications are made individually to the justices. It isn't a group decision. — Sandra Day O'Connor

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

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

You have to answer the question, like it or not. And the questions deserve a valid legal response, even if the response isn't one that will be easily understood. You have an obligation as a member of the court to do what you are bound to do under federal law, even if it isn't an attractive resolution from a public standpoint. — Sandra Day O'Connor

Life Lessons by Sandra Day O'Connor

1. Sandra Day O'Connor taught the importance of hard work and dedication, having worked her way up from a ranch in Arizona to becoming the first female Supreme Court Justice.
2. She was a firm believer in the rule of law and the importance of judicial independence.
3. She also championed the need for civility and compromise in the political process, believing that it was the only way to make progress.