ipl-logo

Maria Sotomayor Case

1682 Words7 Pages

On August 8, 2009, Sonia Maria Sotomayor became the first justice of Hispanic descent to be seated on the United States Supreme Court. Her upbringing in a Puerto Rican household in the Bronx, significantly shaped her decision making first on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1991-1997) and later, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1997 - 2009). Today, Sotomayor continually advocates for the basic rights of Americans; this is demonstrated in two of her recent opinions: (1) her 58 page dissent of the Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (2014) decision, in which the Court decided, 6-2, that states could prohibit the use of affirmative action at public universities; and (2) and her opinion on the Brumfield v. Cain (2015) which …show more content…

Though Sotomayor originally wanted to be a detective, after she was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes at age seven, the doctor who diagnosed her told her that she should consider a less strenuous profession. As a result, she set her eyes on being a judge after being inspired by the 1950’s television series about a criminal defense lawyer, Perry Mason. …show more content…

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Supreme Court decided that the amendment of Michigan’s Constitution which banned affirmative action at public institutions was constitutional. Prior to the enactment of this law, Michigan residents had voted in favor of the proposed amendment that prohibited consideration of race or sex in admissions to Michigan’s public universities. In turn, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigration Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary, sued state officials-- arguing that this amendment violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth

Show More
Related
1170 Words | 5 Pages

Notаbly absent from the opinion, as it was in Plessy, is any citаtion to a Supreme Court cаse that considered whether the prаctice of segregating schools was a violation of the Fourteenth Аmendment. It was an open question for the Court. The Court аdmitted that the precedent to which it cited involved discriminаtion between whites and blacks rаther thаn other rаces. However, the Court found no аppreciable difference here—"the decision is within the discretion of the state in regulating its public schools, and does not conflict with the Fourteenth Аmendment."

Read More
215 Words | 1 Pages

The case that sparked my interest on equal protection was Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan. This case allowed Joe Hogan, a registered nurse enrollment in two state supported coeducational nursing programs, but denied him enrollment in the Mississippi University for Women’s School of Nursing’s baccalaureate program, on the grounds that he was a male. The significance of the case is that parties seeking to uphold a statute that classifies individual’s gender must carry the burden of showing an "exceedingly persuasive justification" for the classification. Also, single-sex admissions policy of MUW 's School of Nursing cannot be justified on the ground that it compensates for discrimination against women.

Read More
1258 Words | 6 Pages

O’Connor’s early life shaped her life as a judge. She was born March 26, 1930, on Lazy B Ranch in Arizona (McFeatters 22). O’Connor’s experiences on the ranch developed her belief in hard work (“O’Connor, Sandra Day”). When she was a young girl, O’Connor saw the effects of her neighbor beating his family, was mad that she could do nothing about it, and afterwards, she wanted justice more than anything (McFeatters 34). O’Connor was very smart, and was sent to El Paso, Texas every year to go to school (McFeatters 32).

Read More
797 Words | 4 Pages

Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominated for the Supreme Court, gave a speech to the Senate Judiciary Committee about her work experience as a judge and her outlook on education. Sotomayor speaks about her experinces as a judge, along with the hard work she put into her education that earned her scholarships into two Ivy League schools. Sotomayor’s purpose is to seek the support from the Senate Judiciary Committee by giving an image to show she is eligible to be in the Supreme Court. Sotomayor supports her purpose with her background story about her education and her occupations as a judge. Sotomayor uses rhetorical appeals and a grateful tone to persuade the committee she is an applicable candidate to be in the Supreme Court.

Read More
803 Words | 4 Pages

Eventually, after going all the way to the supreme court twice, she was accepted into OU’s law school. Although she was allowed to attend white classes, she was required to sit in a special part of the class designated “Colored”. Ada’s first lawsuit created a law school in Oklahoma specifically for black students. This was neither acceptable to Ada nor was it acceptable to her council. Ada’s lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, brought the case to the supreme court contending that the very nature of law school and of most graduate school fields require fellow piers to discuss and debate with.

Read More
674 Words | 3 Pages

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25th 1954 in the South Bronx area of New York to parents Juan and Celina Baez Sotomayor. Her parents who were of Puerto Rican descent moved their family to New York for a better opportunity for their children. Her parents worked hard to make a living her mother was a nurse a methadone clinic and her father worked with his hands and the family lived modestly within their means. Justice Sotomayor was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of seven and began taking insulin shot’s, shortly after her father died in 1963 when she was nine, leaving her mother as a single parent, during her upbringing her mother Celina placed a huge emphasis on the importance of education, pushing her children to become

Read More
120 Words | 1 Pages

A Supreme Courts nominee’s job is to be confirmed. To do so, they must navigate a Congressional hearing. These confirmation hearings are less about the nominee 's jurisprudence/case history and more about turning the candidate into a two-dimensional character that is composed of political sound bites. Then, it is the applicant’s responsibility to perform the textbook responses artfully to appease their audience. When Michael Dorf wrote, “What is Sonia Sotomayor’s Judicial Philosophy” he brought the public’s attention to the “Confirmation Ground Rules,” Here, he spoke about the choreographed hearing process.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

In Regents of University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court ruled that a university 's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school 's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances. " The college was asked to at least consider blacks in the admittance of college and they were asked to not use quotas in the admission

Read More
177 Words | 1 Pages

She took the right path just like the narrator in the poem “The Road Not Taken.” The choice that the Sotomayor took was a job to be a judge but she also could of been a lawyer. She not to mad at herself for not being a lawyer but she is

Read More
183 Words | 1 Pages

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an advocate for civil rights, has often said while in the face of adversity, “Fight for the things you care about but do so in a way that will lead others to join you” (Alter). Ambitious as she is, her inaccurate depiction in the media contributes to her difficulty in pursuing this ideal. This misrepresentation attempts to both discredit and disregard her personality and accomplishments. Throughout her life, however, Ginsburg experienced far greater calamities than her perception in the media including significant events involving her upbringing. These hardships, while contributing to her anguish, led her to develop advances in character which later allowed her to pursue her beliefs and encourage

Read More
250 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout Sotomayor political career it could be argued that she has remained consistent in her core political beliefs that pertain to areas regarding racial discrimination. However on issues such as gun control there is evidence of inconsistency but overall Sotomayor can be classified has centrist liberal. An example of her left leaning tendencies that has remained consistent is her commitment to affirmative action and fighting against racial discrimination. In Ricci v. DeStefano, Sotomayor upheld the rejection of a lawsuit by white firefighters, one of them Hispanic, claiming racial discrimination after white firefighters were denied promotions after an examination that produce no black firefighters. She decided not to rehear the case in

Read More
1523 Words | 7 Pages

At least four Supreme Court justices believe that affirmative action is unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts has said that “the way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”. This viewpoint offers no differentiation between “race consciousness” and “racism”, but is a quite common opinion. This sort of viewpoint is what may drive America towards class-based rather than race-based affirmative action. Because of the disparities in income and wealth, minorities are as likely as whites to benefit under a class-based policy.

Read More
1406 Words | 6 Pages

The Rhetorical Strategies of a Latina Judge's Speech To End the Lack of Representation Throughout the diversity in the United States, there is a multitude of factors that underestimate and terminate the presence or idea of women and minorities in government roles. In current times, awareness of gender equality and excluded minorities has rose to an all- time high. Many are advocating that the way our country sees and treats intersectionality needs to change for the better. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is an advocator by spreading this public announcement through a piece of a speech. She discusses the obstacles she and other minorities face to place higher on the social ladder and to be represented during a speech at the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial

Read More
537 Words | 3 Pages

In 1891, a group of concerned young black men of New Orleans immediately formed the “Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.” They raised money and engaged Albion W. Tourgée, a prominent Radical Republican author and politician, as their lawyer. The poeple involved in this case are the young concerned black men the us government and the states. On May 15, 1892, the Louisiana State Supreme Court decided in favor of the Pullman Company’s claim that the Separate Car Law was unconstitutional. The importance of this case is that In 1883, the Supreme Court finally ruled that the 14th Amendment did not give Congress authority to prevent discrimination by private individuals(Plessy v.

Read More
1734 Words | 7 Pages

Racial inequality has plagued our society for centuries and has been described as a “black eye” on American history. It wasn’t until the passing of The Civil Rights Act of 1965 that minorities were given equal protection under the law. This was a crucial step on our society’s road to reconciling this injustice. However, the effects of past racial inequality are still visible to this day, and our society still wrestles with how to solve this issue. In 1965, President Lyndon B Johnson said: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair.

Read More

More about Maria Sotomayor Case

Related Topics

Open Document