Sandra Day O'Connor Quotes

Two things form the bedrock of any open society - freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don't have those things, you don't have a free country.

It is ingrained into our national life that the rule of law makes us free.

The government, under my leadership, will act to implement the rule of law and to maintain the independence of the judicial system, which is one of the pillars of maintaining a democratic system.

What are we fighting the terrorists for if we ourselves do not even stand up for democracy - civil liberties and fundamental rights - which includes independence of the judiciary?

There are some lines in the sand you just do not cross. Undermining basic civil liberties by locking people up for long periods without charge is one of them.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

The rights to life, liberty and property were not meant to be subject to the vagaries of majority rule.

The rule of law and the independence of the judiciary underpin our democracy and lie at the heart of our way of life. They are the very cornerstone of our freedoms.

There should be no political prisoners in a democratic country.

Law and freedom must be indivisible partners. For without law, there can be no freedom, only choas and disorder; and without freedom, law is but a cynical veneer for injustice and oppression.

Human rights and rule of law are inseparably connected.

A country that goes out of its way to imprison the innocent has no business preaching democracy to the world.

It is a different world and they [the Supreme Court] should speak for justice, not prejudice.... I seek justice, not in some distant tomorrow, not in some study commission, but now while I Iive.

One of the challenges of a democratic government is making sure that even in the midst of emergencies and passions, we make sure that rule of law and the basic precepts of justice and liberty prevail.

To threaten the institution is to threaten fair administration of justice and protection of liberty.

And a democracy can't exist without free speech and the right to assemble. And that's what Americans tend to forget. And they're born into a culture where they take all of their freedoms for granted.

The Bill of Rights isn't some legalistic fine print. It was written to make our lives freer, more prosperous, and happier. By forsaking it, America has become no better than any other country in the world.

True freedom requires the rule of law and justice, and a judicial system in which the rights of some are not secured by the denial of rights to others.

The rule of law is the basis for any democracy. And without the rule of law in democracy, you have chaos.

There is nothing more foreign to a civilised and democratic system than preventive detention.

The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards.

Liberty regulated by law is the underlying principle of our institutions.

As long as I have any choice in the matter, I will live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule.... These conditions do not exist in Germany at the present time.

Legal process is an essential part of the democratic process.

Pakistan is a democracy. We cannot do anything against human rights.