The fact is, we are a nine-member court that sits on cases.
— 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.
I don't know that there are any short cuts to doing a good job.
Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment.
A moment of silence is not inherently religious.
The power I exert on the court depends on the power of my arguments, not on my gender.
There was no hostility at the court when I arrived.
Historically courts in this country have been insulated. We do not look beyond our borders for precedents.
Having family responsibilities and concerns just has to make you a more understanding person.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I wanted to be a cattle rancher when I was young, because it was what I knew and I loved it.
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.
It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.
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.
