Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes
It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.
O'Connor, Sandra Day. Concurring Opinion. Wallace v. Jaffree. 472 U.S. 38, Supreme Court of the United States, 4 June 1985, p. 73.
Ironically, without the word “wicked” most people would regard the first sentence as a good description of elements of a modern democracy. It illustrates that for the Islamic fundamentalist democracy substitutes the rule of man for the rule of God, freedom of speech allows heresy and blasphemy to to uttered and communicated, and religion which is supposed to inform and direct politics. So what is good for the lover of democracy is the very thing that is bad for Islam. This is not a uniquely Islamic viewpoint. It has been and is held by fundamentalist Christians and Jews as well who would return to Biblical law punishing blasphemy and heresy with death and have religion drive all politics.
Kelly Armstrong was a gay man who had committed no crime yet the Assistant Attorney General was following him about, going to his home and accusing him of promoting a “deviant” life style. Shirvell was fired from his job for violation of rules of behavior for law enforcement officers. Armstrong sued Shirvell for violating Michigan’s anti-stalking law. He agreed to drop the suit if Shirvell would apologize and stop stalking him. Shirvell refused. Then a Michigan jury awarded Armstrong $4.5 million in 2012.
Williams was the first theologian who not only advocated religious toleration but argued that Christianity demanded it and the separation of church and state.
New Ross was under siege by Cromwell and his English Parliamentarian troops. After two days, the town tried to negotiate terms of surrender and one of the main things they asked for was freedom of religion to practice Roman Catholicism. This famous response set the stage for religious bigotry over the next years. Cromwell’s reasons for not allowing Catholicism to be practiced was not only one of religious zeal. At the time, the Roman Catholic Church was a major geopolitical power under a Pope who commonly supported or even dispatched troops for geopolitical and religious ends. The Vatican was particularly resentful of England for separating from the Church and asserting that the King of England was the head of the Church and not the Pope. Therefore Cromwell and many Englishmen had to deal with the reality that every practicing Catholic in the realm was a potential spy, traitor, and/or rebel. This fear of control of countries by the Pope strongly affected America, and was responsible for the defeat of the first Catholic Presidential Candidate, Al Smith. It was also a major factor in the election of John F. Kennedy so he dealt with it head on.
Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired attorney and politician who served as the first woman associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was the first woman nominated and confirmed. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered the swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the beginning of the Roberts Court.
