Top 80 Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 2

51. “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

52. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

54. “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

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

57. “Cyberspace undeniably reflects some form of geography.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

58. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

59. “I need to retire from retirement.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

60. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

61. “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

62. “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

63. “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

64. “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

65. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

68. “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

69. “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

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

71. “A moment of silence is not inherently religious.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

72. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

73. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

74. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

76. “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

77. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

78. “For students, understanding the separate and unique functions of each branch of government can help them understand how different kinds of government officials can help solve different kinds of problems.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

79. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

81. “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

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

— Sandra Day O'Connor

83. “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.”

— Sandra Day O'Connor