Quotes By 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.

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.

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.

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. That's set out in the Constitution.

Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.

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

There was no hostility at the court when I arrived.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Half the states have stopped making civics and government a requirement for high school. Half.

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.

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

Parents should continue to become more involved with their communities, and more involved in their children's education.

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.

Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.

We don't accomplish anything in this world alone... and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads form one to another that creates something.

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.

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

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.

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

As a citizen, you need to know how to be a part of it, how to express yourself - and not just by voting.

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.

Young women today often have very little appreciation for the real battles that took place to get women where they are today in this country. I don't know how much history young women today know about those battles.

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

The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community.

Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment.

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.