Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

The worst thing you want is a willy-nilly judge who is swayed by the political whims of the era or the time. What you want is a judge who is thinking about what he or she is doing and is thinking about it in a principled way.

You can have many different selection systems, but the bottom line has to be a system that, once the judge takes office that judge will feel that he or she is to decide the case without reference to the popular thing or the popular will of the moment.

It's important not to get into the business of characterizing judges based on one decision they make

The state in commissioning its judges has commanded them to judge, but neither in constitution nor in statute has it formulated a code to define the manner of their judging.

It has not been unknown that judges persist in error to avoid giving the appearance of weakness and vacillation.

Judges ... rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to pressures of the times.

I certainly would not vote against a particular judge already in office because of a decision in a case. You may not agree with a judge's decision, but the judge must act within the law.

It's simply not bias for a judge to explain her reasoning in a dissent.

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.

I think when judges are in the position of authority, they really get bent out of shape when someone tells them they acted inappropriately.

All judges have cases that touch our passions deeply, but we all struggle constantly with remaining impartial.

We must keep in mind the vast power entrusted to Federal judges. They never stand for election. Once appointed, they serve for life. The havoc that a Federal District Court Judge can wreak is substantial.

I don't suggest we ought to be able to pressure judges, but we ought to be able to criticize [them] when we think they've made a mistake

If a judge does his job right, you [the observer] will never know how he personally feels about the policies he may have to rule on.

Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.

Judges are objects of aversion and distrust.

The inflexible and uniform adherence to the rights of the constitution and of individuals, which we perceive to be indispensable in the courts of justice, can certainly not be expected from judges who hold their offices by a temporary commission.

We don't pay judges to think; we pay judges to rule on the law.

If you're going to be a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you're not always going to like the conclusions you reach. If you like them all the time, you're probably doing something wrong.

A judge who likes every opinion he reaches is a bad judge.

A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge... stretching for results he prefers rather than those the law demands.

The fascination about being a judge is the same about the duty of being a judge, and that is to ask yourself, Why am I about to rule the way I am about to rule? You must always ask yourself that question.

Judges have their own point of view, and we have to respect them for that. Rather than feeling bad, we respect our judges and their opinions.

Judges certainly have political connections and strong political views, but that doesn't mean they can't rise above politics when they hear cases. We expect them to, and the law presumes they do.

A judge is not a god or a king. He has the last word most of the time, but sometimes, one makes mistakes.