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Quotes by Judge
"Yes, I will bring the understanding of a woman to the Court, but I doubt that alone will affect my decisions."
24
"The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community."
23
"A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company."
23
"In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action."
22
"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."
22
"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."
21
"Crabbed and obscure definitions are of no use beyond a narrow circle of students, of whom probably every one has a pet one of his own."
21
"A person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not give rise to probable cause to search that person."
21
"The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution."
21
"Dissents are appeals to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of another day."
21
"I have to admit that I'm one of those people that thinks the dishwasher is a miracle."
21
"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free."
21
"I take judge-made law as one of the existing realities of life."
20
"I would not like to be the only woman on the court."
20
"But separation of church and state was never meant to separate God and government."
20
"The flaw in the statute is that in all its applications, it operates on a fundamentally mistaken premise that high solicitation costs are an accurate measure of fraud."
20
"Disapproval of homosexuality cannot justify invading the houses, hearts and minds of citizens who choose to live their lives differently."
20
"Statutes authorizing unreasonable searches were the core concern of the framers of the 4th Amendment."
19
"But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here."
19
"We might not object to the statement that Lear deserved to suffer for his folly, selfishness and tyranny; but to assert that he deserved to suffer what he did suffer is to do violence not merely to language but to any healthy moral sense."
19
"We pay a price when we deprive children of the exposure to the values, principles, and education they need to make them good citizens."
19
"It must always be remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures."
19
"Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke."
19
"Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from the failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so."
19
"The principle inherent in the clause that prohibits pointless infliction of excessive punishment when less severe punishment can adequately achieve the same purposes invalidates the punishment."
19
"Each of us brings to our job, whatever it is, our lifetime of experience and our values."
19
"The risk to be percieved defines the duty to be obeyed."
19
"Carve every word before you let it fall."
19
"Nor does the idea of a moral order asserting itself against attack or want of conformity answer in full to our feelings regarding the tragic character."
19
"Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?"
19
"Independence doesn't mean you decide the way you want."
18
"The fact is, we are a nine-member court that sits on cases."
18
"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."
18
"Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution."
18
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