Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Sonia Maria Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York in June 1954. Her family lived in a South Bronx tenement among other Puerto Ricans, until they moved to another housing project in Soundview. She graduated as valedictorian from the Cardinal Spellman High School in The Bronx.
Sotomayor attended Princeton University on a full scholarship and graduated with an A.B. in history. She went on to receive her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. After admittance to the New York bar, she became an assistant district attorney, later entering private practice. She was appointed by Mayor Ed Koch as one of the founding members of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, where she served for four years.
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, when 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 was married for a time to Kevin Edward Noonan, a biologist and patent lawyer. They were divorced a few years later and had no children. She is a Roman Catholic.
In the News…
In a dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced concern that her conservative colleagues were willing to side with the Trump Administration both on matters of controversial policies and putting them into effect as emergencies.
The dissent was part of the court’s decision that granted the government’s request to permit the “public charge” rule to go into effect in every state. She stated, “It is hard to say what is more troubling, that the government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the court would grant it.”
She pointed out that “the government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, claiming one emergency after another,” a process she said may upend “the normal” appellate process in favor of the majority party while “putting a thumb on the scale in
Three other justices noted a dissent, but did not join in Sotomayor’s decision.
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 St. NE
Washington, DC 20543
