Quotes by Women Judges

Sandra Day O'Connor

Sonia Sotomayor

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Jane Bolin

Elena Kagan

Emily Murphy

Rose Bird

A prime part of the history of our Constitution is the story of the extension of constitutional rights to people once ignored or excluded.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Don't be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.

Sonia Sotomayor

It is absolutely true that I have served in two Democratic administrations. You can tell something from me and my political views from that.

The First Amendment expresses our Nation's fundamental commitment to religious liberty by means of two provisions–one protecting the free exercise of religion, the other barring establishment of religion. They were written by the descendants of people who had come to this land precisely so that they could practice their religion freely. Together with the other First Amendment guarantees–of free speech, a free press, and the rights to assemble and petition–the Religion Clauses were designed to safeguard the freedom of conscience and belief that those immigrants had sought. They embody an idea that was once considered radical: Free people are entitled to free and diverse thoughts, which government ought neither to constrain nor to direct

Sandra Day O'Connor

No woman can become or remain degraded without all women suffering.

If you have never experienced life under a microscope, you need to understand that those who live a public life no longer are seen as 'real persons' — human beings. Rather they are objects to be examined, manipulated, ridiculed.

Mother brings a child late to contact by half-an-hour; father then requires an extra half-hour the next week. This is getting silly. If, in fact, the father does not see the child at all, of course he should see the child on another occasion, but there are fathers who actually add up the minutes and produce it and say "Now I should have so much more contact because I lost five minutes last week and ten minutes the week before".

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss

I am often asked what it was like to be a woman clerking for Justice Scalia. Much like being a man clerking for him is my easy answer. Justice Scalia believed in one simple principle: That law came to the court as an is not an ought. Statutes, cases and the Constitution were to be read for what they said, not for what the judges wished they would say. Each of his opinions needed to conform to that principle and to be written clearly, forcefully and accurately. If you could help him with that, you were useful to him. If not, then not. When we were working, we sometimes joked that he could not even remember our names.

It is easy to imagine how a young, protected child who sees portrayals of brutality is forever scarred and becomes determined to contribute in her own small way to social justice.