Quotes by Judges

We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation. Sandra Day O'Connor

Government You Generation Every Complex Complex System System Teach

I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions. Sonia Sotomayor

Princeton Action Baby Those Colleagues Bronx Able Born Perfect Institutions Yale Am Test Test Scores Were South Off Scores South Bronx Affirmative Affirmative Action Rican Succeed Far Product Comparable Puerto Puerto Rican Raised

I listened very, very carefully to the world around me to pick up the signals of when trouble was coming. Not that I could stop it. But it made me observant. That was helpful when I became a lawyer, because I knew how to read people's signals. Sonia Sotomayor

The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn't have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself. Sonia Sotomayor

Truth Myself Family Me Truth Is Independence Everyone Perceiving Unreliable Adult Had Since Around Felt Without Came Cultivated Existential End Survived Childhood Depended In The End Deeply Cared

Independence doesn't mean you decide the way you want. Stephen Breyer

You Independence Way Want Decide Mean

The need for self-defense naturally exists outside and inside the home, I would hold the 2nd Amendment applies outside the home. Thomas Hardiman

Home Self-Defense Would Inside Outside Exists Amendment Hold Naturally Need

Deciding not to decide is, of course, among the most important things done by the Supreme Court. It takes a lot of doing, but it can be done. Thurgood Marshall

Important Important Things Takes Most Supreme Supreme Court Course Court Doing Lot Done The Most Important Decide Deciding Among Things

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen. Warren E. Burger

Freedom Free Free Speech Carries Some Listen Speech

There can be no assumption that today's majority is 'right' and the Amish and others like them are 'wrong.' A way of life that is odd or even erratic but interferes with no rights or interests of others is not to be condemned because it is different. Warren E. Burger

So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community. William Blackstone

Good Great Property Law Will Community General General Good Moreover Least Private Private Property Regard Whole Even Violation

Free men have arms; slaves do not. William Blackstone

Men Free Free Men Arms Slaves

Judging is a lonely job in which a man is, as near as may be, an island entire. Abe Fortas

Man Job Lonely Entire Judging Island May Which Near

It is not the responsibility of the judiciary to amend poor legislative drafting, even if judges would personally prefer a different outcome than what is required by a statute's text. Amul Thapar

Responsibility Judiciary Would Outcome Judges Text Amend Than Legislative Different Prefer Poor Personally Required Even Drafting

I'm my own judge, and I hope my track record speaks to that. Amul Thapar

Hope Judge Own Record My Own Track Track Record Speaks

A defendant can use discovery to run out the clock on the plaintiff and to make the plaintiff run out of money. Amul Thapar

Money Out Run Make Discovery Clock Use Defendant

I support an equal playing field for plaintiffs and defendants - and the way to get that equal playing field is not by having unlimited discovery. Amul Thapar

Field Unlimited Way Having Support Equal Discovery Get Playing Playing Field

I tend to agree with those who say that a justice's duty is to the Constitution and that it is thus more legitimate for her to enforce her best understanding of the Constitution rather than a precedent she thinks is clearly in conflict with it. Amy Coney Barrett

In a system of precedent, the new majority bears the weight of explaining why the constitutional vision of their predecessors was flawed and of making the case as to why theirs better captures the meaning of our fundamental law. Amy Coney Barrett

I would never impose my own personal convictions upon the law. Amy Coney Barrett

Law Own Convictions Would My Own Never Impose Personal

Judges cannot - nor should they try to - align our legal system with the Church's moral teaching whenever the two diverge. They should, however, conform their own behavior to the Church's standard. Amy Coney Barrett