Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor is an American jurist, lawyer, and judge who has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Born on June 25, 1954, in the Bronx, New York, Sotomayor attended Cardinal Spellman High School before going on to Princeton University, where she later also received an honorary doctorate. She subsequently earned her law degree from Yale Law School, which likewise conferred an honorary doctorate upon her. Her educational path carried her from the Bronx through two of the country's most selective institutions, forming the foundation of a career that would span roles as a prosecutor, lawyer, judge, and university teacher.
On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and she has served as an associate justice since August 8, 2009. Her appointment marked two significant firsts: she became the first Hispanic justice in the Court's history and only the third woman ever to hold a seat on that bench. Those distinctions place her nomination among the more historically notable in the Court's modern era, though the record of her tenure continues to be written in the present tense. In addition to the honorary degrees from Princeton and Yale, she has received honorary doctorates from Hofstra University and Howard University, recognitions that reflect her standing across both legal and academic communities.
Sotomayor's professional identity draws together several distinct roles — judge, prosecutor, lawyer, and university teacher — that together trace a career moving between the courtroom and the classroom. She has also received the Schneider Family Book Award, pointing to a dimension of her work that extends into writing. Throughout her public life, the concerns of law, justice, and civic participation in English-language discourse have remained the consistent frame through which her contributions, on the bench and beyond, can be understood.
Quotes by Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor's insights on:
I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.
Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the 'supreme law of the land', in most instances they're not even law.
No matter how liberal I am, I’m still outraged by crimes of violence. Regardless of whether I can sympathize with the causes that lead these individuals to do these crimes, the effects are outrageous.
I wouldn’t approach the issue of judging in the way the president does. Judges can’t rely on what’s in their heart. They don’t determine the law. Congress makes the law. The job of a judge is to apply the law.
If you’re poor, you don’t often live near a good school. If it’s a competitive public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs.
I think there’s a large segment of the mainland population that does not really understand the number of territories that are part of the United States.
If I write a book where all I’ve ever experienced is success, people won’t take a positive lesson from it. In being candid, I have to own up to my own failures, both in my marriage and in my work environment.
I’ve never had my dexterity called into question, but I think if that was ever the case, I could acquit myself by tossing a ball back and forth horizontally between my hands.
There’s a great variety of people in Washington, but I think because of the great concentration of people in New York, that variety is more visible. You walk the streets and there are people of every color, shape and size, ethnic background, religion, it doesn’t matter. It’s always present.