Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

Through its interpretation of the Constitution, the Supreme Court hugely shapes the fabric of our society for us and for future generations.

I've passed on a number of bills. I've studied the Constitution myself. I am reasonably well educated...

My touchstone for every question is the Constitution.

I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.

President Obama seems to understand the Constitution as a 'set of suggestions.'

The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.

Over the course of 19 years on the Supreme Court, I learned some lessons about the Constitution of the United States.

A federal judge did as he was supposed to do and upheld the Constitution. We should be thankful that we have judiciary that will do that.

Constitutions are interpreted differently from statutes.

The Supreme Court today is plagued by a vision of the Constitution which is cramped and narrow.

Original intent is a necessary fiction that jurists have invented to get a handle on the Constitution.

David Addington does not believe in the Constitution

It has been the judiciary that has preserved the Constitution rather than the other two separated powers.

I think it makes no difference whether or not I endorse it. The Constitution is as the Supreme Court interprets it and I must conform to this and do my best to see that it is carried out in this country.

The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution, is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents. Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of the judicial to the legislative power. It only supposes that the power of the people is superior to both; and that where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental

Of course, the Supreme Court's work is vital not just to a region of the country, but to the whole, vital to the protection of the people's liberties under law and to the continuity of our Constitution, the greatest charter of human liberty the world has ever known.

District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized an individual right to possess a firearm under the Constitution, is unquestionably the most clearly incorrect decision that the Supreme Court announced during my tenure on the bench.

The Founding Fathers provided a way to reverse unpopular Supreme Court decisions: a constitutional amendment.

I never want to be in the business of predicting what the U.S. Supreme Court will do.

I believe Judge Kavanaugh will be a justice whose adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law will be a credit to the Court and all Americans.

I think that one reasons I like Brett Kavanaugh is he was clearly one that was gonna interpret the Constitution.

The powers contained in a constitution...ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.

Well, let's see. There's-of course in the great history of America there have been rulings that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American, and there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So, you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but...

The Constitution is what the judges say it is.

It is surely only a matter of time before some federal judge finds the Constitution unconstitutional.