Sonia Sotomayor

Quotes

• “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.”
• “The saw is that if you're going into academia, you're going to teach, or as Judge Lucero just said, public interest law, all of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people with court of appeals experience, because it is -- court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know -- and I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law, I know. OK, I know. I'm not promoting it, and I'm not advocating it, I'm -- you know.”
• “I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.”
• “I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.”
• “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.”
• “In such cases, one can feel powerless and wonder why the others were not persuaded by what one took to be so salient in the case. There is, on the other hand, a singularly satisfying feeling that one gets when one has arrived at a particularly penetrating analysis and is able to convince both of one's colleagues of its merit.”

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Key dates

Born

25 June 1954

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Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Given name

Maria

Gender

female

Citizenship

United States

Place of birth

The Bronx

Occupation

jurist

Employer

New York County District Attorney

Languages spoken

English language

Religion

Catholicism

Image

Sonia Sotomayor 7 in robe, 2009.jpg

Work location

Manhattan

via Wikidata · CC0