Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Supreme Court of the United States
Sonia Maria Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York in June 1954. She attended Princeton University on a full scholarship, where she earned an undergraduate degree. She earned a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. During her law school summers, she worked first for a New York law firm and later for one in the District of Columbia.
She was hired out of law school to be an assistant district attorney at the New York County District Attorneys’ Office. She later established her own private practice firm in Manhattan. She served four years on the New York City Campaign Finance Board, having been appointed by Mayor Ed Koch.
In 1992, she was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to a seat on the bench of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. She served there for six years, then she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a position on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In 2009, she was nominated by President Barack Obama to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Justice Sotomayor is divorced from Kevin Noonan. She has no children. She is Catholic.
In the News…
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor addressed students at Fordham Law School in New York by video conference last week. Without addressing any current cases before the Court, she said that her disillusionment with the current justice system has been evidenced in some of the high-profile dissents she has written lately.
She told the students to “identify what’s disillusioning you and become a champion of change—go out there and fight. … That’s how I get up every morning. I look at what my battle is that day and I accept that for today I might lose.” Telling them she continues working for change.
“Wrong things can be changed, and that’s what lawyers do is work on changing those wrong things,” Justice Sotomayor said. “And so, what I say to a young lawyer is: People make laws. Justices are people, and people can get laws wrong.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Justice Sotomayor today? You can let her know at:
The Honorable Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Supreme Court of the United States
1 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20543
