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Sonia Sotomayor

28 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.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at Duke University Law School, 2005. (Video)
“I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in "Remarks of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor", The Associated Press (26 May 2009).
“I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1997 Senate confirmation hearing, reported in Deborah Tedford, ""Senate Will Have To Confirm Court Choice", NPR (26 May 2009).
“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.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Woman in the News: Sotomayor, a Trailblazer and a Dreamer", The New York Times (26 May 2009).
“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.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in 2000, reported in "Sotomayor's jackpot win, court rulings revealed" at MSNBC (5 June 2009).
“I understand Justice Scalia's jurisprudence to begin with a proposition that we should all agree to — namely, that judges should try to interpret the law correctly, and without personal or political bias.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in 2000, reported in "Sotomayor's jackpot win, court rulings revealed" at MSNBC (5 June 2009).
“I find the speech in this case patently offensive, hateful, and insulting. The Court should not, however, gloss over three decades of jurisprudence and the centrality of First Amendment freedoms in our lives because it is confronted with speech it does not like.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pappas v. Giuliani, 290 F.3d 143 (2002) (dissenting).
“Awareness that the Government may be watching chills associational and expressive freedoms. And the Government’s unrestrained power to assemble data that reveal private aspects of identity is susceptible to abuse.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945, 956 (2012) (concurring).
“Until we get equality in education, we won’t have an equal society.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Q&A session at quarterly meeting of the Philadelphia Bar Association (11 March 2011), as reported in "Sotomayor receives Philadelphia Bar's Diversity Award" by Jeff Blumenthal, in Philadelphia Business Journal (11 March…
“Puerto Rico will not only survive this. It will bloom once again.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: part of statement after Hurricane Maria, translation from Spanish quoted here (2017)
“Government doesn’t do, people do,” she said. “It’s people who make laws, it’s people who change laws. It’s people who make things happen. So my question is, what are you going to do to make the government more representative? It won’t change unless we change it.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted here (2017)
“Look at another person and understand no matter how much you disagree with them… if you look, you will find good in them.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted here (2017)
“America has a deeply confused image of itself that is in perpetual tension. We are a nation that takes pride in our ethnic diversity, recognizing its importance in shaping our society and in adding richness to its existence. Yet, we simultaneously insist that we can and must function and live in a race and color-blind way that ignore these very differences that in other contexts we laud. That tension between "the melting pot and the salad bowl" – a recently popular metaphor used to described New York's diversity – is being hotly debated today in national discussions about affirmative action.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In our private conversations, Judge Cedarbaum has pointed out to me that seminal decisions in race and sex discrimination cases have come from Supreme Courts composed exclusively of white males. I agree that this is significant but I also choose to emphasize that the people who argued those cases before the Supreme Court which changed the legal landscape ultimately were largely people of color and women.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency. It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law. Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom about the need for “bold and unhesitating action” by the President, ante, at 3, 13, the Court gives former President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more. Because our Constitution does not shield a former President from answering for criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Argument by argument, the majority invents immunity through brute force. Under scrutiny, its arguments crumble. To start, the majority’s broad “official acts” immunity is inconsistent with text, history, and established understandings of the President’s role. Moreover, it is deeply wrong, even on its own functionalist terms. Next, the majority’s “core” immunity is both unnecessary and misguided. Furthermore, the majority’s illogical evidentiary holding is unprecedented. Finally, this majority’s project will have disastrous consequences for the Presidency and for our democracy.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No matter how you look at it, the majority’s official-acts immunity is utterly indefensible.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seems history matters to this Court only when it is convenient.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In sum, the majority today endorses an expansive vision of Presidential immunity that was never recognized by the Founders, any sitting President, the Executive Branch, or even President Trump’s lawyers, until now. Settled understandings of the Constitution are of little use to the majority in this case, and so it ignores them.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a far greater danger if the President feels empowered to violate federal criminal law, buoyed by the knowledge of future immunity. I am deeply troubled by the idea, inherent in the majority’s opinion, that our Nation loses something valuable when the President is forced to operate within the confines of federal criminal law.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“First of all, a girl like you should always dream big. Second, never let anyone say that you can’t do it. And the minute they say that, you should do as I have done myself and say: "You are telling me I can’t do it? Well, I’ll show you I can." Third, you have to study, study and study. That’s the only way you can achieve what you want in life. Education is the key to the future. And fourth, you have to work very hard. In life no one will give you anything for free. You must earn every single thing in this life. It is by studying and working hard that you will become president of the United States.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Justice Sotomayor's answer to Sophie McLoud, a 10-year-old Latina, who asked "Do you think a girl like me could become president of the United States?" February 2020
“Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate. There is always a danger embedded in relative morality, but since judging is a series of choices that we must make, that I am forced to make, I hope that I can make them by informing myself on the questions I must not avoid asking and continuously pondering.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The indictment paints a stark portrait of a President desperate to stay in power. In the weeks leading up to January 6, 2021, then-President Trump allegedly “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won,” despite being “notified repeatedly” by his closest advisers “that his claims were untrue." When dozens of courts swiftly rejected these claims, Trump allegedly “pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors; and ultimately, cause the ascertainment of and voting by illegitimate electors” in his favor. It is alleged that he went so far as to threaten one state election official with criminal prosecution if the official did not “‘find’ 11,780 votes” Trump needed to change the election result in that state. When state officials repeatedly declined to act outside their legal authority and alter their state election processes, Trump and his co-conspirators purportedly developed a plan to disrupt and displace the legitimate election certification process by organizing fraudulent slates of electors.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Court now confronts a question it has never had to answer in the Nation’s history: Whether a former President enjoys immunity from federal criminal prosecution. The majority thinks he should, and so it invents an atextual, ahistorical, and unjustifiable immunity that puts the President above the law. The majority makes three moves that, in effect, completely insulate Presidents from criminal liability. First, the majority creates absolute immunity for the President’s exercise of “core constitutional powers.” This holding is unnecessary on the facts of the indictment, and the majority’s attempt to apply it to the facts expands the concept of core powers beyond any recognizable bounds. In any event, it is quickly eclipsed by the second move, which is to create expansive immunity for all “official act[s].” Whether described as presumptive or absolute, under the majority’s rule, a President’s use of any official power for any purpose, even the most corrupt, is immune from prosecution. That is just as bad as it sounds, and it is baseless. Finally, the majority declares that evidence concerning acts for which the President is immune can play norole in any criminal prosecution against him. That holding, which will prevent the Government from using a President’s official acts to prove knowledge or intent in prosecuting private offenses, is nonsensical.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Looking beyond the fate of this particular prosecution, the long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark. The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding. This new official-acts immunity now “lies about like a loaded weapon” for any President that wishesto place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation. Korematsu v. United States, 323 U. S. 214, 246 (1944) (Jackson, J., dissenting). The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune. Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today. Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The majority’s single-minded fixation on the President’s need for boldness and dispatch ignores the countervailing need for accountability and restraint. The Framers were not so single-minded. In the Federalist Papers, after “endeavor[ing] to show” that the Executive designed by the Constitution “combines . . . all the requisites to energy,” Alexander Hamilton asked a separate, equally important question: “Does it also combine the requisites to safety, in a republican sense, a due dependence on the people, a due responsibility?” The Federalist No. 77, p. 507 (J. Harvard Library ed. 2009). The answer then was yes, based in part upon the President’s vulnerability to “prosecution in thecommon course of law.” Ibid. The answer after today is no. Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”
Sonia Sotomayor (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source