:Sonia Sotomayor

SotomayorSotomayor has used Maria as a middle name in the past but seems to have discontinued its use. See [https://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/s-z/sotomayor_sonia/Sotomayor-NassauHerald.jpg Princeton yearbook image] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303203710/http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/s-z/sotomayor_sonia/Sotomayor-NassauHerald.jpg |date=March 3, 2016 }}. In her 2009 questionnaire response to the Senate Judiciary Committee considering her nomination, she listed "Sonia Sotomayor" as her current name, and "Sonia Maria Sotomayor", "Sonia Sotomayor de Noonan", "Sonia Maria Sotomayor Noonan", and "Sonia Noonan" as former names. See United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, reprinted in proceedings of [http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleId=CHRG-111shrg56940&packageId=CHRG-111shrg56940 Senate Hearing no. 111-503, Confirmation Hearing On The Nomination Of Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, To Be An Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616144448/http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/pagedetails.action?granuleId=CHRG-111shrg56940&packageId=CHRG-111shrg56940 |date=June 16, 2012 }}, p. 152. Retrieved February 13, 2012. was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx.{{cite web |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/sotomayor-sonia |title=Judge of the United States Courts – Sotomayor, Sonia |publisher=Federal Judicial Center | access-date=July 20, 2014 | archive-date=April 20, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420050014/https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/sotomayor-sonia | url-status=live}} Her father was Juan Sotomayor (c. 1921–1964), from the area of Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and her mother was Celina Báez (1927–2021),{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/politics/30puerto.html |title=In Puerto Rico, Supreme Court Pick With Island Roots Becomes a Superstar |author=Cave, Damien |work=The New York Times |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=November 11, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111033044/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/politics/30puerto.html | url-status=live}} an orphan from Santa Rosa in Lajas, a rural area on Puerto Rico's southwest coast.{{cite news |url=http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/05/26/2866432-sotomayor-maintains-puerto-rican-roots |title=Sotomayor Maintains Puerto Rican Roots |work=Newsvine |date=May 26, 2009 |agency=Associated Press | access-date=May 30, 2012 |last=Coto |first=Danica | archive-date=March 20, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320011841/http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/05/26/2866432-sotomayor-maintains-puerto-rican-roots | url-status=live}}

The two left Puerto Rico separately, met, and married during World War II after Celina served in the Women's Army Corps.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/politics/27websotomayor.html |title=Woman in the News: Sotomayor, a Trailblazer and a Dreamer |author=Stolberg, Sheryl Gay |work=The New York Times |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 27, 2009 | archive-date=May 7, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507102744/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/politics/27websotomayor.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |author=Grinberg, Emanuella |date=July 13, 2009 |title=Family hails Sonia Sotomayor's Puerto Rican roots |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/13/sotomayor.roots/index.html|url-status=live|access-date=July 14, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714115931/http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/13/sotomayor.roots/index.html|archive-date=July 14, 2009}} Juan Sotomayor had a third-grade education, did not speak English, and worked as a tool and die worker; Celina Báez worked as a telephone operator and then a practical nurse. Sonia's younger brother, Juan Sotomayor (born c. 1957), later became a physician and university professor in the Syracuse, New York, area.{{cite news |url=http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/pablo_martinez_monsivais_appre.html |title=Supreme Court nominee's brother hails from Syracuse suburb of Clay |author=Rahme, Dave |work=The Post-Standard |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530140631/http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/pablo_martinez_monsivais_appre.html | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor was raised a Catholic and grew up in Puerto Rican communities in the South Bronx and East Bronx; she calls herself a "Nuyorican". The family lived in a South Bronx tenement{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/15/AR2009061503170.html |title=Supreme Change |author=Shulman, Robin |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 16, 2009 | access-date=June 17, 2009 | archive-date=October 27, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027085825/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/15/AR2009061503170.html | url-status=live}} before moving in 1957 to the well-maintained, racially and ethnically mixed, working-class Bronxdale Houses housing project{{cite news |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1901476,00.html |title=Sonia Sotomayor: A Justice Like No Other |author=Lacayo, Richard |magazine=Time |date=May 28, 2009 | access-date=August 2, 2014 | archive-date=February 24, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224155144/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1901476,00.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/nyregion/31projects.html |title=Up and Out of New York's Projects |author1=Alvarez, Lizette |author2=Wilson, Michael | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=January 21, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110121095031/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/nyregion/31projects.html | url-status=live}} in Soundview (which has over time been thought as part of both the East Bronx and South Bronx).{{cite news |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2009/05/close-read-a-motorcycle-a-playground-and-a-justice.html |title=Close Read: A Motorcycle, a playground, and a justice |author=Davidson, Amy |magazine=The New Yorker |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=May 27, 2009 | archive-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530054532/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2009/05/close-read-a-motorcycle-a-playground-and-a-justice.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |first=James C. |last=McKinley |title=Woman in the News; Strike-Zone Arbitrator — Sonia Sotomayor |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7D7163FF932A35757C0A963958260 |work=The New York Times |date=April 1, 1995 |access-date=February 12, 2017 |archive-date=February 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218161745/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7D7163FF932A35757C0A963958260 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Resident in Sotomayor's old Bronx apartment feels pride |author=Shallwani, Pervaiz |work=Newsday |date=May 27, 2009}} In 2010, the Bronxdale Houses were renamed in her honor. Her relative proximity to Yankee Stadium led to her becoming a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees.{{cite news |first=Greg B. |last=Smith |title=Judge's Journey to Top: Bronx' Sotomayor Rose From Projects to Court of Appeals |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/10/24/1998-10-24_judge_s_journey_to_top______.html |work=Daily News |location=New York |date=October 24, 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090803124231/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1998/10/24/1998-10-24_judge_s_journey_to_top______.html |archive-date=August 3, 2009 |url-status=dead}} The extended family got together frequently and regularly visited Puerto Rico during summers.{{cite news |url=http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/06/05/69575/latina-pride-presents-challenge.html |title=Latina pride presents challenge and opportunity for Sotomayor |author=Doyle, Michael |agency=McClatchy Newspapers |date=June 5, 2009 | access-date=July 20, 2014 | archive-date=October 2, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201002110502/https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/06/05/69575/latina-pride-presents-challenge.html | url-status=dead}}

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Sotomayor grew up with an alcoholic father and a mother who was emotionally distant; she felt closest to her grandmother, who she later said was a source of "protection and purpose".{{cite news |last=Totenberg |first=Nina |title=Sotomayor Opens Up About Childhood, Marriage In 'Beloved World' |url=https://www.npr.org/2013/01/12/167042458/sotomayor-opens-up-about-childhood-marriage-in-beloved-world |publisher=NPR |date=January 12, 2013|access-date=January 24, 2013|author-link=Nina Totenberg|archive-date=August 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808070033/https://www.npr.org/2013/01/12/167042458/sotomayor-opens-up-about-childhood-marriage-in-beloved-world|url-status=live}} Sotomayor was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age seven{{cite news |first=Jan |last=Hoffman |title=A Breakthrough Judge: What She Always Wanted |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7D8173AF936A1575AC0A964958260 |work=The New York Times |date=September 25, 1992 |access-date=February 12, 2017 |archive-date=March 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330170756/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/25/news/a-breakthrough-judge-what-she-always-wanted.html |url-status=live}} and began taking daily insulin injections.{{cite news | title=Sonia Sotomayor's mom shares spotlight | author=Burch, Audra D.S. |work=The Miami Herald | date=May 28, 2009 }} Her father died of heart problems at age 42, when she was nine years old.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/us/politics/28mother.html |title=A Judge's Own Story Highlights Her Mother's |author1=Shane, Scott |author2=Fernandez, Mandy | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-date=September 25, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925063042/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/us/politics/28mother.html | url-status=live}} After that, she became fluent in English. Celina Sotomayor put great stress on the value of education; she bought the Encyclopædia Britannica for her children, something unusual in the housing projects. Despite the distance between the two, which became greater after her father's death and which was not fully reconciled until decades later, Sotomayor has credited her mother with being her "life inspiration".{{cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/27/nation/na-sonia-sotomayor27 |title=Sonia Sotomayor is Obama's Supreme Court nominee |last=Silva |first=Mark |date=May 26, 2009 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=May 27, 2009 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014053422/http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/27/nation/na-sonia-sotomayor27 |archive-date=October 14, 2009}}

For grammar school, Sotomayor attended Blessed Sacrament School in Soundview,{{cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/dreams-live-sotomayor-old-school-blessed-sacrament-bronx-article-1.374906 |title=Dreams live on at Sotomayor's old school, Blessed Sacrament in the Bronx |author=Daly, Michael |work=Daily News |location=New York |date=May 28, 2009 | access-date=July 21, 2014 | archive-date=September 24, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924121744/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/dreams-live-sotomayor-old-school-blessed-sacrament-bronx-article-1.374906 | url-status=live}} where she was valedictorian and had a near-perfect attendance record.{{cite press release |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the_press_office/Background-on-Judge-Sonia-Sotomayor |title=The President's Nominee: Judge Sonia Sotomayor |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=July 30, 2014 |via=National Archives |work=whitehouse.gov | archive-date=August 6, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145123/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/background-judge-sonia-sotomayor | url-status=live}} Although underage, Sotomayor worked at a local retail store and a hospital.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/14/sotomayor.childhood/index.html |title=Sotomayor was schoolgirl with focus, determination, friends say |author=Simon, Mallory |publisher=CNN |date=July 14, 2009 | access-date=July 14, 2009 | archive-date=July 14, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714191033/http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/14/sotomayor.childhood/index.html | url-status=live}} Sotomayor has said that she was first inspired by the strong-willed children's book detective character Nancy Drew, but, after her diabetes diagnosis led her doctors to suggest a different career path, she was inspired to pursue a legal career and become a judge by watching the Perry Mason television series. She reflected in 1998: "I was going to college and I was going to become an attorney, and I knew that when I was ten. Ten. That's no jest."

Sotomayor passed the entrance tests for and then attended Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx. At Cardinal Spellman, Sotomayor was on the forensics team and was elected to the student government.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052600914.html |title=Heritage Shapes Judge's Perspective |author1=Goldstein, Amy |author2=Markon, Jerry | name-list-style=amp |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=May 27, 2009 | archive-date=March 27, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327143942/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052600914.html | url-status=live}} She graduated as valedictorian in 1972. Meanwhile, the Bronxdale Houses had fallen victim to increasing heroin use, crime, and the emergence of the Black Spades gang. In 1970, the family found refuge by moving to Co-op City in the Northeast Bronx.

Sotomayor attended Princeton University. She has said she was admitted in part due to her achievements in high school and in part because affirmative action made up for her standardized test scores, which she described as "not comparable to her colleagues at Princeton and Yale." She would later say that there are cultural biases built into such testing and praised affirmative action for fulfilling "its purpose: to create the conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run."Tribe and Matz, Uncertain Justice, p. 27.

Sotomayor described her time at Princeton as life-changing.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/15sotomayor.html |title=On a Supreme Court Prospect's Résumé: 'Baseball Savior' |work=The New York Times |date=May 14, 2009 |author=Lewis, Neil A. | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=April 29, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429170630/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/15sotomayor.html | url-status=live}} Initially, she felt like "a visitor landing in an alien country"{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104538436 |title=Sotomayor: 'Always Looking Over My Shoulder' |publisher=NPR |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=August 30, 2009 |author1=Ludden, Jennifer |author2=Weeks, Linton | name-list-style=amp | archive-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529043335/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104538436 | url-status=live}} coming from the Bronx and Puerto Rico.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/15/sotomayor.college/index.html |title=Cricket, Ivy League classmates startled student Sonia Sotomayor |author=Landau, Elizabeth |publisher=CNN |date=July 15, 2009 | access-date=July 15, 2009 | archive-date=July 16, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716170049/http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/15/sotomayor.college/index.html | url-status=live}} Princeton had few female students and fewer Latinos (about 20). She was too intimidated to ask questions during her freshman year; her writing and vocabulary skills were weak and she lacked knowledge in the classics.{{cite news |title=Discipline, drive push Sotomayor from Bronx to bench |author=Smith, Jennifer |work=Newsday |date=May 27, 2009}} She put in long hours in the library and worked over summers with a professor outside of class, and gained skills, knowledge and confidence.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/politics/30affirm.html |title=Sotomayor's Focus on Race Issues May Be Hurdle |author=Kirkpatrick, David D. |work=The New York Times |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=November 3, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103015549/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/politics/30affirm.html | url-status=live}} She became a moderate student activist{{cite news |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23074.html |title=Princeton University holds the key to understanding Sonia Sotomayor |author=Smith, Ben |work=Politico |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531154403/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23074.html | url-status=live}} and co-chair of the Acción Puertorriqueña organization, which served as a social and political hub and sought more opportunities for Puerto Rican students. She worked in the admissions office, traveling to high schools and lobbying on behalf of her best prospects.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/politics/07affirm.html |title=For Sotomayor and Thomas, Paths Diverge at Race |author1=Kantor, Jodi |author2=Gonzalez, David | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=June 6, 2009 | access-date=June 7, 2009 | archive-date=December 6, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206220724/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/politics/07affirm.html | url-status=live}}

As a student activist, Sotomayor focused on faculty hiring and curriculum, since Princeton did not have a single full-time Latino professor nor any class on Latin American studies.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053101935.html |title=Sotomayor Was a Passionate but Civil Activist |author1=Goldstein, Amy |author2=MacGillis, Alex | name-list-style=amp |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 1, 2009 | access-date=June 1, 2009 | archive-date=November 8, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108083340/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053101935.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2009/05/letter-to-the-editor-anti-latino-discrimination-at-princeton-may-10-1974/ |title=Anti-Latino discrimination at Princeton |author=Sotomayor, Sonia |work=The Daily Princetonian |date=May 10, 1974 | access-date=July 21, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814002355/http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2009/05/letter-to-the-editor-anti-latino-discrimination-at-princeton-may-10-1974/ | archive-date=August 14, 2014 | url-status=dead}} A meeting with university president William G. Bowen in her sophomore year saw no results,{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sotomayor-profile31-2009may31,0,2464037.story |title=Two sides to Sonia Sotomayor |author1=Nicholas, Peter |author2=Oliphant, James | name-list-style=amp |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 30, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=June 11, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611192120/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sotomayor-profile31-2009may31,0,2464037.story | url-status=live}} with Sotomayor telling a New York Times reporter at the time that "Princeton is following a policy of benign neutrality and is not making substantive efforts to change."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/23/archives/puerto-ricans-find-bias-at-princeton-special-to-the-new-york-times.html |title=Puerto Ricans Find Bias at Princeton |work=The New York Times |date=April 23, 1974}} She also wrote opinion pieces for the Daily Princetonian addressing the same issues. Acción Puertorriqueña filed a formal letter of complaint in April 1974 with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, saying the school discriminated in its hiring and admission practices.{{cite news |url=http://images.politico.com/global/news/090528_sotomayorarticle.jpg |title=Latin student groups assail university hiring performance |author=Liemer, David |work=The Daily Princetonian |date=April 22, 1974 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=December 7, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207093921/http://images.politico.com/global/news/090528_sotomayorarticle.jpg | url-status=live}} The university began to hire Latino faculty, and Sotomayor established an ongoing dialogue with Bowen.

Sotomayor also successfully persuaded professor Peter Winn, who specialized in Latin American history, to create a seminar on Puerto Rican history and politics. Sotomayor joined the governance board of Princeton's Third World Center and served on the university's student–faculty Discipline Committee, which issued rulings on student infractions. She also ran an after-school program for local children, and volunteered as an interpreter for Latino patients at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.

File:Sotomayor5 NassauHerald.jpg

Academically, Sotomayor stumbled her first year at Princeton, but later received almost all A grades in her final two years of college. Sotomayor wrote her senior thesis on Luis Muñoz Marín, the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico, and on the territory's struggles for economic and political self-determination. The 178-page work, "La Historia Ciclica de Puerto Rico: The Impact of the Life of Luis Muñoz Marin on the Political and Economic History of Puerto Rico, 1930–1975",{{cite news |url=http://stuarttaylorjr.com/content/grading-sotomayors-senior-thesis-ninth-justice |title=Grading Sotomayor's Senior Thesis |author=Taylor Jr., Stuart |work=National Journal |date=June 2, 2009 | access-date=July 30, 2014 | author-link=Stuart Taylor Jr. | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808053700/http://stuarttaylorjr.com/content/grading-sotomayors-senior-thesis-ninth-justice | archive-date=August 8, 2014 }} won honorable mention for the Latin American Studies Thesis Prize.{{cite web |url=https://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/s-z/sotomayor_sonia/ |title=Princeton alumna Sonia Sotomayor nominated to the Supreme Court: Images |publisher=Princeton University | access-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531095044/http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/s-z/sotomayor_sonia/ | url-status=live}} As a senior, Sotomayor won the Pyne Prize, the top award for undergraduates, which reflected both strong grades and extracurricular activities.{{cite news |author=Gilinsky, Adam |url=http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2009/05/germany-sotomayor-receive-1976-pyne-prize-feb-28-1976/ |title=Germany, Sotomayor receive 1976 Pyne Prize |date=February 28, 1976 |work=The Daily Princetonian|access-date=August 1, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808055906/http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2009/05/germany-sotomayor-receive-1976-pyne-prize-feb-28-1976/|archive-date=August 8, 2014}} In 1976, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa{{cite journal |journal=The Key Reporter |publisher=Phi Beta Kappa |title=ΦΒΚ Member Sonia Sotomayor Joins U.S. Supreme Court |date=Fall 2009 |page=5}} and graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in history. She was influenced by critical race theory, which would be reflected in her later speeches and writings.Tushnet, In the Balance, p. 80.

Sotomayor entered Yale Law School in the fall of 1976. While she believes she again benefited from affirmative action to compensate for relatively low standardized test scores, a former dean of admissions at Yale has said that given her record at Princeton, it probably had little effect. At Yale she fit in well although she found there were few Latino students. She was known as a hard worker but she was not considered among the star students in her class. Yale General Counsel and professor José A. Cabranes acted as an early mentor to her to successfully transition and work within "the system".{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/us/politics/22mentors.html |title=Judge's Mentor: Part Guide, Part Foil |author=Kirkpatrick, David D. |work=The New York Times |date=June 21, 2009 | access-date=June 23, 2009 | archive-date=March 25, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325110226/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/us/politics/22mentors.html | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor became an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and was also managing editor of the student-run Yale Studies in World Public Order publication (later known as the Yale Journal of International Law).{{cite web |url=http://www.pace.edu/page.cfm?doc_id=7771 |title=Commencement 2003: Sonia Sotomayor |publisher=Pace University |date=April 21, 2003 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070512101229/http://www.pace.edu/page.cfm?doc_id=7771 | archive-date=May 12, 2007}} She published a law review note on the effect of possible Puerto Rican statehood on the island's mineral and ocean rights. She was a semi-finalist in the Barristers Union mock trial competition. She served as the co-chair of a group for Latin, Asian, and Native American students, and continued to advocate for the hiring of more Hispanic faculty.

Following her second year, she gained a job as a summer associate with the prominent New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. By her own later evaluation, her performance there was lacking.Sotomayor, My Beloved World, pp. 182–183. She did not receive an offer for a full-time position, an experience that she later described as a "kick in the teeth" and one that would bother her for years. In her third year, she filed a formal complaint against the established Washington, D.C., law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge for suggesting during a recruiting dinner that she was at Yale only via affirmative action. Sotomayor refused to be interviewed by the firm further and filed her complaint with a faculty–student tribunal, which ruled in her favor. Her action triggered a campus-wide debate, and news of the firm's subsequent December 1978 apology made The Washington Post.

In 1979, Sotomayor was awarded a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. She was admitted to the New York Bar the following year.{{cite web |url=http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/sotomayor_sjc.pdf |title=United States Senate Committee on Judiciary - Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees | access-date=May 30, 2012 |author=Sotomayor, Sonia | archive-date=May 27, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527133354/http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/sotomayor_sjc.pdf | url-status=live}}

{{ced|section|for=proper paragraphing. Excessively long, run-on paragraphs need to be split into multiple paragraphs of moderate length|date=August 2024}}

On the recommendation of Cabranes, Sotomayor was hired out of law school as an assistant district attorney under New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau starting in 1979. She said at the time that she did so with conflicted emotions: "There was a tremendous amount of pressure from my community, from the third world community, at Yale. They could not understand why I was taking this job. I'm not sure I've ever resolved that problem."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/27/magazine/the-da-s-right-arms.html |title=The D.A.'s Right Arms |author=Barzilay, Jonathan |work=The New York Times Magazine |date=November 27, 1983 | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=May 14, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514164911/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/27/magazine/the-da-s-right-arms.html | url-status=live}}

It was a time of crisis-level crime rates and drug problems in New York, Morgenthau's staff was overburdened with cases, and like other rookie prosecutors, Sotomayor was initially fearful of appearing before judges in court.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/us/politics/08prosecutor.html |title=Sotomayor Is Recalled as a Driven Rookie Prosecutor |author1=Weiser, Benjamin |author2=Rashbaum, William K. | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=June 7, 2009 | access-date=June 8, 2009 | archive-date=July 20, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140720003523/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/us/politics/08prosecutor.html | url-status=live}} Working in the trial division, she handled heavy caseloads as she prosecuted everything from shoplifting and prostitution to robberies, assaults, and murders. She also worked on cases involving police brutality.{{cite news |url=http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/2009/5/26/hispanics_praise_selection_of_sotomayor_for.htm |title=Hispanics Praise Selection of Sotomayor for Supreme Court; Republicans Wary |author=Kuznia, Rob |work=Hispanic Business |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 27, 2009 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530101359/http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/2009/5/26/hispanics_praise_selection_of_sotomayor_for.htm | archive-date=May 30, 2009 }} She was not afraid to venture into tough neighborhoods or endure squalid conditions in order to interview witnesses.{{cite news |author=Powell, Michael, Kovaleski, Serge F., and Buettner, Russ |date=July 9, 2009 |title=To Get to Sotomayor's Core, Start in New York |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/nyregion/10sonia.html|url-status=live|access-date=July 10, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130215064502/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/nyregion/10sonia.html|archive-date=February 15, 2013}}

In the courtroom, she was effective at cross examination and at simplifying a case in ways to which a jury could relate.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/16/sotomayor.district.attorney/index.html |title=Sotomayor learned the ropes on 'Tarzan' case |author=O'Neill, Ann |publisher=CNN |date=July 16, 2009 | access-date=July 16, 2009 | archive-date=July 19, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719082601/http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/16/sotomayor.district.attorney/index.html | url-status=live}} In 1983, she helped convict Richard Maddicks (known as the "Tarzan Murderer" who acrobatically entered apartments, robbed them, and shot residents for no reason).{{cite news |author=Temple-Raston, Dina |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105005007 |title=Sotomayor's Real-World Schooling In Law And Order |publisher=NPR |date=June 9, 2009 | access-date=June 11, 2009 | archive-date=June 19, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619094910/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105005007 | url-status=live}} She felt lower-level crimes were largely products of socioeconomic environment and poverty, but she had a different attitude about serious felonies: "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." Hispanic-on-Hispanic crime was of particular concern to her: "The saddest crimes for me were the ones that my own people committed against each other."

In general, she showed a passion for bringing law and order to the streets of New York, displaying special zeal in pursuing child pornography cases, unusual for the time. She worked 15-hour days and gained a reputation for being driven and for her preparedness and fairness. One of her job evaluations labelled her a "potential superstar". Morgenthau later described her as "smart, hard-working, [and having] a lot of common sense," and as a "fearless and effective prosecutor." She stayed a typical length of time in the post and had a common reaction to the job: "After a while, you forget there are decent, law-abiding people in life."{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/17/nyregion/as-he-seeks-a-4th-term-morgenthau-confronts-first-sustained-criticism.html |title=As He Seeks a 4th Term, Morgenthau Confronts First Sustained Criticism |author=Farber, M.A. |work=The New York Times |date=June 17, 1985 | access-date=June 1, 2009 | archive-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529193325/http://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/17/nyregion/as-he-seeks-a-4th-term-morgenthau-confronts-first-sustained-criticism.html | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor and her husband, Kevin Edward Noonan, whom she had married in 1976, divorced amicably in 1983; they did not have children. She has said that the pressures of her working life were a contributing factor, but not the major factor, in the breakup.{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sotomayor-gives-intimate-look-into-personal-life/ |title=Sotomayor Gives Intimate Look Into Personal Life |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=June 12, 2009 | access-date=August 2, 2014 | archive-date=August 12, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812182531/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/12/sotomayor-gives-intimate-look-personal-life/ | url-status=live}}{{cite video |url=http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/06/10/us/politics/1194840839411/interview-on-good-morning-america.html |title=Interview on 'Good Morning America' |work=Good Morning America via The New York Times |year=1986 |access-date=June 12, 2009 |archive-date=June 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615013020/http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/06/10/us/politics/1194840839411/interview-on-good-morning-america.html |url-status=dead }} From 1983 to 1986, Sotomayor had an informal solo practice, dubbed Sotomayor & Associates, located in her Brooklyn apartment.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/politics/07firm.html |title=Little Information Given About Solo Law Practice Run by Sotomayor in '80s |author=Kovaleski, Serge F. |work=The New York Times |date=July 6, 2009 | access-date=July 7, 2009 | archive-date=July 14, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714195934/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/politics/07firm.html | url-status=live}} She performed legal consulting work, often for friends or family members.

In 1984, she entered private practice, joining the commercial litigation practice group of Pavia & Harcourt in Manhattan as an associate. One of 30 attorneys in the law firm, she specialized in intellectual property litigation, international law, and arbitration.{{Cite web |url=http://www.abanet.org/publiced/hispanic_s.html |title=National Hispanic Heritage Month 2000: Profile -- Week 4: Sonia Sotomayor |website=www.americanbar.org |archive-date=February 29, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040229014342/http://www.abanet.org/publiced/hispanic_s.html}}{{cite news |first=Terry |last=Carter |author2=Stephanie Francis Ward |title=The Lawyers Who May Run America |url=http://abajournal.com/magazine/the_lawyers_who_may_run_america_obama |work=ABA Journal |date=November 2008 |access-date=January 17, 2009 |archive-date=January 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112081502/http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/the_lawyers_who_may_run_america_obama |url-status=live}} She later said, "I wanted to complete myself as an attorney." Although she had no civil litigation experience, the firm recruited her heavily, and she learned quickly on the job.{{cite news |url=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202431011230&Nominees_civil_practice_was_with_a_small_but_specialized_firm&slreturn=1 |title=Nominee's civil practice was with a small, but specialized, firm |author=Sloan, Karen |work=The National Law Journal |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-date=June 7, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607231112/http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202431011230&Nominees_civil_practice_was_with_a_small_but_specialized_firm&slreturn=1 | url-status=live}} She was eager to try cases and argue in court, rather than be part of a larger law firm.

Her clients were mostly international corporations doing business in the United States; much of her time was spent tracking down and suing counterfeiters of Fendi goods. In some cases, Sotomayor went on-site with the police to Harlem or Chinatown to have illegitimate merchandise seized, in the latter instance pursuing a fleeing culprit while riding on a motorcycle. She said at the time that Pavia & Harcourt's efforts were run "much like a drug operation", and the successful rounding up of thousands of counterfeit accessories in 1986 was celebrated by "Fendi Crush", a destruction-by-garbage-truck event at Tavern on the Green.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/11/style/notes-on-fashion.html |title=Notes on Fashion |author=Gross, Michael |work=The New York Times |date=November 11, 1986 | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112241/http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/11/style/notes-on-fashion.html | url-status=live}}

At other times, she dealt with dry legal issues such as grain export contract disputes. In a 1986 appearance on Good Morning America that profiled women ten years after college graduation, she said that the bulk of law work was drudgery, and that while she was content with her life, she had expected greater things of herself coming out of college. In 1988 she became a partner at the firm; she was paid well but not extravagantly.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/17/sotomayor.bench/index.html |title=Sotomayor is tough judge with breadstick habit, colleagues say |author=Gross, Doug |publisher=CNN |date=July 17, 2009 | access-date=July 20, 2009 | archive-date=July 20, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090720222344/http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/17/sotomayor.bench/index.html | url-status=live}} She left in 1992 when she became a judge.

In addition to her law firm work, Sotomayor found visible public service roles.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/us/politics/05judge.html |title=Sotomayor Rose on Merit Alone, Her Allies Say |last1=Powell |first1=Michael|author-link=Michael Powell (attorney) |last2=Kovaleski |first2=Serge F. |work=The New York Times |date=June 4, 2009|access-date=June 5, 2009|archive-date=April 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404041636/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/us/politics/05judge.html|url-status=live}} She was not connected to the party bosses that typically picked people for such jobs in New York, and indeed she was registered as an independent. Instead, District Attorney Morgenthau, an influential figure, served as her patron. In 1987, Governor of New York Mario Cuomo appointed Sotomayor to the board of the State of New York Mortgage Agency, which she served on until 1992. As part of one of the largest urban rebuilding efforts in American history, the agency helped low-income people get home mortgages and to provide insurance coverage for housing and hospices for sufferers of AIDS. Despite being the youngest member of a board composed of strong personalities, she involved herself in the details of the operation and was effective. She was vocal in supporting the right to affordable housing, directing more funds to lower-income home owners, and in her skepticism about the effects of gentrification, although in the end she voted in favor of most of the projects.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/us/19mortgage.html |title=In New York, Sotomayor Put Focus on the Poor |last1=Savage |first1=Charlie |last2=Powell |first2=Michael |work=The New York Times |date=June 18, 2009 | access-date=June 19, 2009 | archive-date=November 5, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105004636/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/us/19mortgage.html | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor was appointed by Mayor Ed Koch in 1988 as one of the founding members of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, where she served for four years.{{cite web |url=http://www.nyccfb.info/press/info/board_members.htm?sm=press_04 |title=Board Members – New York City Campaign Finance Board |publisher=New York City Campaign Finance Board |year=2008 | access-date=May 26, 2009 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229040107/http://www.nyccfb.info/press/info/board_members.htm?sm=press_04 | archive-date=December 29, 2010 }} There she took a vigorous role in the board's implementation of a voluntary scheme wherein local candidates received public matching funds in exchange for limits on contributions and spending and agreeing to greater financial disclosure.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/politics/30judge.html |title=A Long Record on Campaign Finance, Often in Support of Regulations |author=Savage, Charlie |work=The New York Times |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=November 5, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105004631/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/us/politics/30judge.html | url-status=live}} Sotomayor showed no patience with candidates who failed to follow regulations and was more of a stickler for making campaigns follow those regulations than some of the other board members. She joined in rulings that fined, audited, or reprimanded the mayoral campaigns of Koch, David Dinkins, and Rudy Giuliani.

Based upon another recommendation from Cabranes,{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sotomayor6-2009jun06,0,110637.story |title=Sotomayor was nudged into judgeship, associates say |author=Zajac, Andrew |work=Los Angeles Times |date=June 6, 2009 | access-date=June 7, 2009 | archive-date=June 15, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615001014/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sotomayor6-2009jun06,0,110637.story | url-status=live}} Sotomayor was a member of the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1980 to 1992.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29puerto.html |title=Nominee's Links With Advocates Fuel Her Critics |author1=Hernandez, Raymond |author2=Chen, David W. | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=May 28, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=October 4, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004031053/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29puerto.html | url-status=live}} There she was a top policy maker who worked actively with the organization's lawyers on issues such as New York City hiring practices, police brutality, the death penalty, and voting rights. The group achieved its most visible triumph when it successfully blocked a city primary election on the grounds that New York City Council boundaries diminished the power of minority voters.

During 1985 and 1986, Sotomayor served on the board of the Maternity Center Association, a Manhattan-based non-profit group which focused on improving the quality of maternity care.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803937_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009052803991 |title=Abortion Rights Backers Get Reassurances on Nominee |last1=Barnes |first1=Robert |last2=Shear |first2=Michael D. | name-list-style=amp |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-date=November 8, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108152708/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803937_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009052803991 | url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/judgesbio.htm |title=Circuit Judges' Biographical Information |publisher=U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit |access-date=May 26, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130210152921/http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/judgesbio.htm |archive-date=February 10, 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://www.aspenpublishers.com/PDF/Sotomayor_Almanac_Past_Profiles.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707191625/http://www.aspenpublishers.com/PDF/Sotomayor_Almanac_Past_Profiles.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 7, 2011 |title=Past Profiles: Sonia Sotomayor |work=Almanac of the Federal Judiciary |publisher=Aspen Law & Business |year=1997 |page=35}}

Sotomayor had wanted to become a judge since she was in elementary school, and in 1991 she was recommended for a spot by Democratic New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Moynihan had an unusual bipartisan arrangement with his fellow New York senator, Republican Al D'Amato, whereby he would get to choose roughly one out of every four New York district court seats even though a Republican was in the White House.{{cite news |url=http://washingtonexaminer.com/why-did-george-h.w.-bush-pick-sotomayor-for-the-courts/article/99114 |title=Why did George H.W. Bush pick Sotomayor for the courts? |author=York, Byron |work=The Washington Examiner |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | author-link=Byron York | archive-date=July 26, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726080119/http://washingtonexaminer.com/why-did-george-h.w.-bush-pick-sotomayor-for-the-courts/article/99114 | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/27/sotomayors_district_court_bid.html?wprss=44 |title=Sotomayor's District Court Bid Aided by D'Amato and Moynihan |author=Francke-Ruta, Garance |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=January 12, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112212147/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/27/sotomayors_district_court_bid.html?wprss=44 | url-status=dead}}Tushnet, In the Balance, p. 72. Moynihan also wanted to fulfill a public promise he had made to get a Hispanic judge appointed for New York. When Moynihan's staff recommended her to him, they said "Have we got a judge for you!" Moynihan identified with her socio-economic and academic background and became convinced she would become the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. D'Amato became an enthusiastic backer of Sotomayor, who was seen as politically centrist at the time. Of the impending drop in salary from private practice, Sotomayor said: "I've never wanted to get adjusted to my income because I knew I wanted to go back to public service. And in comparison to what my mother earns and how I was raised, it's not modest at all."

Sotomayor was thus nominated on November 27, 1991, by President George H. W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by John M. Walker Jr. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, led by a friendly Democratic majority, went smoothly for her in June 1992, with her pro bono activities winning praise from Senator Ted Kennedy and her getting unanimous approval from the committee.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/27/AR2009052703707.html |title=Rigorous Questioning Hasn't Fazed Nominee |author=MacGillis, Alec |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 28, 2009 | access-date=May 28, 2009 | archive-date=February 4, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204175548/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/27/AR2009052703707.html | url-status=live}} Then a Republican senator blocked her nomination and that of three others for a while in retaliation for an unrelated block Democrats had put on another nominee.{{cite news |url=http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-usconf2812810389may27,0,5438462.story |title=Sotomayor no stranger to Senate confirmation process |author=Brune, Tom |work=Newsday |date=May 27, 2009 |access-date=May 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531063012/http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-usconf2812810389may27%2C0%2C5438462.story |archive-date=May 31, 2009 |url-status=dead}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/14/us/4-women-delayed-in-rise-to-bench.html |title=4 Women Delayed in Rise to Bench |author=Lewis, Neil A. |work=The New York Times |date=July 14, 1992 | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=January 16, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116020402/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/14/us/4-women-delayed-in-rise-to-bench.html | url-status=live}} D'Amato objected strongly; some weeks later, the block was dropped, and Sotomayor was confirmed by unanimous consent{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/16/nyregion/update-a-small-whittling-down-of-federal-bench-vacancies.html |title=A Small Whittling Down Of Federal Bench Vacancies |work=The New York Times |date=August 16, 1992 | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=February 5, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205034004/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/16/nyregion/update-a-small-whittling-down-of-federal-bench-vacancies.html | url-status=live}} of the full United States Senate on August 11, 1992, and received her commission the next day.

Sotomayor became the youngest judge in the Southern District and the first Hispanic federal judge in New York State.{{cite news |first=Wayne |last=King |title=Hispanic Nominee for U.S. Bench |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5DE173FF931A35750C0A967958260 |work=The New York Times |date=March 2, 1991 |access-date=February 12, 2017 |archive-date=February 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218152509/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5DE173FF931A35750C0A967958260 |url-status=live}} She became the first Puerto Rican woman to serve as a judge in a U.S. federal court.{{cite book | editor-first=Vicki |editor-last=Ruíz |editor2=Korrol, Virginia Sánchez |title=Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia |url=https://archive.org/details/latinasunitedsta00ruiz | url-access=limited |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-253-34680-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/latinasunitedsta00ruiz/page/n35 13]}} She was one of seven women among the district's 58 judges. She moved from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, back to the Bronx in order to live within her district.

Sotomayor generally kept a low public profile as a district court judge. She showed a willingness to take anti-government positions in a number of cases, and during her first year in the seat, she received high ratings from liberal public-interest groups. Other sources and organizations regarded her as a centrist during this period. In criminal cases, she gained a reputation for tough sentencing and was not viewed as a pro-defense judge.{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124415867263187033 |title=Nominee's Criminal Rulings Tilt to Right of Souter |author1=Bravin, Jess |author2=Koppel, Nathan | name-list-style=amp |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=June 5, 2009 | access-date=June 7, 2009 | archive-date=April 10, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410063125/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124415867263187033 | url-status=live}} A Syracuse University study found that in such cases, Sotomayor generally handed out longer sentences than her colleagues, especially when white-collar crime was involved.{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-09-sotomayor_N.htm |title=Study: Sotomayor tough on white-collar criminals |agency=Associated Press |work=USA Today |date=July 9, 2009 | access-date=August 30, 2009 | archive-date=August 6, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145127/https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-09-sotomayor_N.htm | url-status=live}} Fellow district judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum was an influence on Sotomayor in adopting a narrow, "just the facts" approach to judicial decision-making.

As a trial judge, she garnered a reputation for being well-prepared in advance of a case and moving cases along a tight schedule. Lawyers before her court viewed her as plain-spoken, intelligent, demanding, and sometimes somewhat unforgiving; one said, "She does not have much patience for people trying to snow her. You can't do it."

On March 30, 1995, in Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc.,Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc., 880 F. Supp. 246 (S.D.N.Y. 1995). Sotomayor issued a preliminary injunction against Major League Baseball, preventing it from unilaterally implementing a new collective bargaining agreement and using replacement players. Her ruling ended the 1994 baseball strike after 232 days, the day before the new season was scheduled to begin. The Second Circuit upheld Sotomayor's decision and denied the owners' request to stay the ruling.{{cite book |first=Roger I. |last=Abrams |title=Legal Bases |publisher=Temple University Press |year=2001 |page=173 |isbn=1-56639-890-8}}National Labor Relations Board v. Major League Baseball, 880 F. Supp. 246 (S.D. N.Y. 1995) The decision raised her profile, won her the plaudits of baseball fans, and had a lasting effect on the game.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/sports/baseball/27sandomir.html |title=Sotomayor's Baseball Ruling Lingers, 14 Years Later |author=Sandomir, Richard |work=The New York Times |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=November 1, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101020557/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/sports/baseball/27sandomir.html | url-status=live}} In the preparatory phase of the case, Sotomayor informed the lawyers of both sides that, "I hope none of you assumed ... that my lack of knowledge of any of the intimate details of your dispute meant I was not a baseball fan. You can't grow up in the South Bronx without knowing about baseball."Toobin, The Oath, p. 133.

In Dow Jones v. Department of Justice (1995),Dow Jones v. Department of Justice, 880 F. Supp. 145 (S.D.N.Y. 1995) Sotomayor sided with the Wall Street Journal in its efforts to obtain and publish a photocopy of the last note left by former Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster. Sotomayor ruled that the public had "a substantial interest"{{cite web |url=http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/sotomayor-on-the-first-amendment |title=Sotomayor on the First Amendment |date=May 28, 2009 |publisher=First Amendment Center|access-date=August 2, 2014|archive-date=August 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810010209/http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/sotomayor-on-the-first-amendment|url-status=live}} in viewing the note and enjoined the U.S. Justice Department from blocking its release.

In New York Times Co. v. Tasini (1997), freelance journalists sued the New York Times Company for copyright infringement for The New York Times{{'}} inclusion in an electronic archival database (LexisNexis) of the work of freelancers it had published. Sotomayor ruled that the publisher had the right to license the freelancers' work. This decision was reversed on appeal, and the Supreme Court upheld the reversal; two dissenters (John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer) took Sotomayor's position.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/26/sotomayor.resume/?iref=hpmostpop |title=Sotomayor's resume, record on notable cases |publisher=CNN |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 26, 2009 | archive-date=May 29, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529121846/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/26/sotomayor.resume/?iref=hpmostpop | url-status=live}}

In Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group (also in 1997), Sotomayor ruled that a book of trivia from the television program Seinfeld infringed on the copyright of the show's producer and did not constitute legal fair use. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Sotomayor's ruling.

File:Sonia Sotomayor 1 with her godson 2, 1998.jpg

On June 25, 1997, Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which was vacated by J. Daniel Mahoney. Her nomination was initially expected to have smooth sailing, with the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary giving her a "well qualified" professional assessment.

However, as The New York Times described, "[it became] embroiled in the sometimes tortured judicial politics of the Senate." Some in the Republican majority believed Clinton was eager to name the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and that an easy confirmation to the appeals court would put Sotomayor in a better position for a possible Supreme Court nomination (despite there being no vacancy at the time nor any indication the Clinton administration was considering nominating her or any Hispanic). Therefore, the Republican majority decided to slow her confirmation.{{cite news |first=Neil A. |last=Lewis |title=After Delay, Senate Approves Judge for Court in New York |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E5D61338F930A35753C1A96E958260 |work=The New York Times |date=October 3, 1998 |access-date=February 12, 2017 |archive-date=February 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218152439/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E5D61338F930A35753C1A96E958260 |url-status=live}} Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh weighed in that Sotomayor was an ultraliberal who was on a "rocket ship" to the highest court.

During her September 1997 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sotomayor parried strong questioning from some Republican members about mandatory sentencing, gay rights, and her level of respect for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. After a long wait, she was approved by the committee in March 1998, with only two dissensions. However, in June 1998, the influential Wall Street Journal editorial page opined that the Clinton administration intended to "get her on to the Second Circuit, then elevate her to the Supreme Court as soon as an opening occurs"; the editorial criticized two of her district court rulings and urged further delay of her confirmation.{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB897248922671860000 |title=The Souter Strategy |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=June 8, 1998 | access-date=August 8, 2017 | archive-date=March 8, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308185254/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB897248922671860000 | url-status=live}} The Republican block continued.{{cite news |first=Neil A. |last=Lewis |title=G.O.P., Its Eyes On High Court, Blocks a Judge |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/13/nyregion/gop-its-eyes-on-high-court-blocks-a-judge.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 13, 1998 |access-date=February 12, 2017 |archive-date=May 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509121157/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/13/nyregion/gop-its-eyes-on-high-court-blocks-a-judge.html |url-status=live}}

Ranking Democratic committee member Patrick Leahy objected to Republican use of a secret hold to slow down the Sotomayor nomination, and Leahy attributed that anonymous tactic to GOP reticence about publicly opposing a female Hispanic nominee.{{cite press release |url=http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200303/030303a.html |title=The Estrada Nomination: The Misquote Of Senator Patrick Leahy, On Filibusters |publisher=United States Senate: Patrick Leahy |date=March 3, 2003 | access-date=June 19, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031228101252/http://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/200303/030303a.html | archive-date=December 28, 2003}} The prior month, Leahy had triggered a procedural delay in the confirmation of fellow Second Circuit nominee Chester J. Straub—who, although advanced by Clinton and supported by Senator Moynihan, was considered much more acceptable by Republicans—in an unsuccessful effort to force earlier consideration of the Sotomayor confirmation.{{cite news |title=Leahy pushes in public, undermines in private |author=Murray, Frank J. |work=The Washington Times |date=May 29, 1998 |page=A4}}

During 1998, several Hispanic organizations organized a petition drive in New York State, generating hundreds of signatures from New Yorkers to try to convince New York Republican senator Al D'Amato to push the Senate leadership to bring Sotomayor's nomination to a vote.{{Cite book |last=Bell |first=Lauren Cohen |title=Warring factions: interest groups, money, and the new politics of Senate confirmation |year=2002 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |location=Columbus |isbn=0-8142-0891-6 |page=81}} D'Amato, a backer of Sotomayor to begin with and additionally concerned about being up for re-election that year, helped move Republican leadership. Her nomination had been pending for over a year when Majority Leader Trent Lott scheduled the vote. With complete Democratic support, and support from 25 Republican senators including Judiciary chair Orrin Hatch, Sotomayor was confirmed on October 2, 1998, by a 67–29 vote.{{cite web |title=U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 105th Congress – 2nd Session |url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=105&session=2&vote=00295 |publisher=United States Senate |access-date=February 16, 2018 |archive-date=December 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210060851/https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=105&session=2&vote=00295 |url-status=live}} She received her commission on October 7.

The confirmation experience left Sotomayor somewhat angry; she said shortly afterwards that during the hearings, Republicans had assumed her political beliefs based on her being a Latina: "That series of questions, I think, were symbolic of a set of expectations that some people had [that] I must be liberal. It is stereotyping, and stereotyping is perhaps the most insidious of all problems in our society today."

Over her 10 years on the Second Circuit, Sotomayor heard appeals in more than 3,000 cases and wrote about 380 opinions when she was in the majority. The Supreme Court reviewed five of those, reversing three and affirming two—not high numbers for an appellate judge of that many years and a typical percentage of reversals.{{cite news |url=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202431087253&slreturn=1 |title=Critics pounce on Sotomayor's reversal rate |author=Mauro, Tony |work=The National Law Journal |date=June 1, 2009 | access-date=June 1, 2009 | archive-date=July 19, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719201039/http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202431087253&slreturn=1 | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor's circuit court rulings led to her being considered a political centrist by the ABA Journal and other sources and organizations.{{cite news |title=Times Topics: Sonia Sotomayor |url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/sonia_sotomayor/index.html?inline=nyt-per |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 1, 2009 |archive-date=May 4, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504103641/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/sonia_sotomayor/index.html?inline=nyt-per |url-status=live}}{{cite news |first=Edward A. |last=Adams |title=Who Will Replace Justice Souter? |url=http://abajournal.com/news/who_will_replace_justice_souter |work=ABA Journal |date=April 30, 2009 |access-date=May 1, 2009 |archive-date=May 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502164220/http://www.abajournal.com/news/who_will_replace_justice_souter |url-status=live}}{{cite news |first=Scott |last=Shepard |title=Speculation Already Under Way on Possible Obama Supreme Court Nominations |publisher=Cox News Service |date=November 24, 2008}}{{cite news |first=Joan |last=Biskupic |author-link=Joan Biskupic |title=The next president could tip high court |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-09-29-election-court-cover_x.htm |work=USA Today |date=July 19, 2005 |access-date=September 14, 2017 |archive-date=August 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826111910/http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-09-29-election-court-cover_x.htm |url-status=live}}{{cite news |first=James |last=McKinley |title=Tough on the Bench: Judge who issued injunction against owners gets high marks by peers |work=Dallas Morning News |date=April 2, 1995}} Several lawyers, legal experts, and news organizations identified her as someone with liberal inclinations.{{cite news |first1=Mark |last1=Sherman |first2=Pete |last2=Yost |title=Sotomayor: A liberal record – but not entirely so |url=http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7681616 |agency=Associated Press |work=ABC News |date=May 26, 2009 |access-date=May 30, 2012 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601115057/http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=7681616 |archive-date=June 1, 2009}}{{cite news |first=Jess |last=Bravin |title=Record Shows Rulings Within Liberal Mainstream |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124338260937756559?mod=googlenews_wsj |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=May 26, 2009 |access-date=August 8, 2017 |archive-date=August 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145125/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124338260937756559?mod=googlenews_wsj |url-status=live}}{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Lacayo |title=Inside the Moderately Liberal Mind of Sonia Sotomayor |url=https://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1901094,00.html |magazine=Time |date=May 26, 2009 |access-date=August 3, 2014 |archive-date=August 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812190146/http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1901094,00.html |url-status=live}} The Second Circuit's caseload typically skewed more toward business and securities law rather than hot-button social or constitutional issues. Sotomayor tended to write narrow, practiced rulings that relied on close application of the law to the facts of a case rather than import general philosophical viewpoints.Coyle, The Roberts Court, p. 253. A Congressional Research Service analysis found that Sotomayor's rulings defied easy ideological categorization, but did show an adherence to precedent and an avoidance of overstepping the circuit court's judicial role.{{cite web |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40649.pdf |title=Judge Sonia Sotomayor: An Analysis of Selected Opinions |author1=Henning, Anna C. |author2=Thomas, Kenneth R. | name-list-style=amp |publisher=Congressional Research Service |date=June 19, 2009 | access-date=June 26, 2009 | archive-date=August 4, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804015054/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40649.pdf | url-status=live}} Unusually, Sotomayor read through all the supporting documents of cases under review; her lengthy rulings explored every aspect of a case and tended to feature leaden, ungainly prose.{{cite news |url=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202431608804&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&pt=NLJ.com-%20Daily%20Headlines&cn=20090622NLJ&kw=Sotomayor%2C%20word%20by%20word&slreturn=1 |title=Sotomayor, word by word |author=Mauro, Tony |work=The National Law Journal |date=June 22, 2009 | access-date=June 22, 2009 | archive-date=July 3, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703103105/http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202431608804&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&pt=NLJ.com-%20Daily%20Headlines&cn=20090622NLJ&kw=Sotomayor%2C%20word%20by%20word&slreturn=1 | url-status=live}} Some legal experts have said that Sotomayor's attention to detail and re-examination of the facts of a case came close to overstepping the traditional role of appellate judges.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070804211.html |title=Uncommon Detail Marks Rulings by Sotomayor |author=Markon, Jerry |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 9, 2009 | access-date=July 10, 2009 | archive-date=February 13, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213131632/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070804211.html | url-status=live}}

Across some 150 cases involving business and civil law, Sotomayor's rulings were generally unpredictable and not consistently pro-business or anti-business.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/us/politics/28circuit.html |title=Sotomayor's Appellate Opinions Are Unpredictable, Lawyers and Scholars Say |author=Schwartz, John |work=The New York Times |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=February 28, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228110223/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/us/politics/28circuit.html | url-status=live}} Sotomayor's influence in the federal judiciary, as measured by the number of citations of her rulings by other judges and in law review articles, increased significantly during the length of her appellate judgeship and was greater than that of some other prominent federal appeals court judges.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/05/28/us/politics/0529-judge-graphic.html |title=Assessing Sotomayor's Influence |work=The New York Times |date=May 28, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=June 1, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601091751/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/05/28/us/politics/0529-judge-graphic.html | url-status=live}} Two academic studies showed that the percentage of Sotomayor's decisions that overrode policy decisions by elected branches was the same as or lower than that of other circuit judges.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/us/politics/20judge.html |title=Uncertain Evidence for 'Activist' Label on Sotomayor |author=Savage, Charlie |work=The New York Times |date=June 20, 2009 | access-date=June 20, 2009 | archive-date=November 5, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105004712/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/us/politics/20judge.html | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor was a member of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts. In October 2001, she presented the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture at UC Berkeley School of Law;{{cite web |url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/26_sotomayor.shtml |title=A Latina judge's voice |publisher=UC Berkeley School of Law |date=October 26, 2001 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530141850/http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/26_sotomayor.shtml | url-status=live}} titled "A Latina Judge's Voice"; it was published in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal the following spring.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15judge.text.html |title=Lecture: 'A Latina Judge's Voice' |work=The New York Times |date=May 14, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=November 23, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091123070842/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15judge.text.html | url-status=live}}The speech recapitulated many thoughts and exact phrases she had previously given before a 1994 panel on women in the judiciary. See {{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124404932521081845 |title=Sotomayor's Talk Made No Waves in '01 |author=Bendavid, Naftalie |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=June 4, 2009 | access-date=June 3, 2009 | archive-date=January 21, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121225454/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124404932521081845 | url-status=live}} In the speech, she discussed the characteristics of her Latina upbringing and culture and the history of minorities and women ascending to the federal bench.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/28/sotomayor.latina.remark.reax/?iref=mpstoryview |title='Latina woman' remark may dominate Sotomayor hearings |publisher=CNN |date=May 28, 2009 | access-date=May 28, 2009 | archive-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531065536/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/28/sotomayor.latina.remark.reax/?iref=mpstoryview | url-status=live}} She said the low number of minority women on the federal bench at that time was "shocking". She then discussed at length how her own experiences as a Latina might affect her decisions as a judge. In any case, her background in activism did not necessarily influence her rulings: in a study of 50 racial discrimination cases brought before her panel, 45 were rejected, with Sotomayor never filing a dissent. An expanded study showed that Sotomayor decided 97 cases involving a claim of discrimination and rejected those claims nearly 90 percent of the time.{{cite news |author=Goldstein, Tom |url=http://www.scotusblog.com/2009/05/judge-sotomayor-and-race-results-from-the-full-data-set/ |title=Judge Sotomayor and Race – Results from the Full Data Set |publisher=SCOTUSblog |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=September 19, 2010 | author-link=Tom Goldstein | archive-date=August 12, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100812055653/http://www.scotusblog.com/2009/05/judge-sotomayor-and-race-results-from-the-full-data-set/ | url-status=live}} Another examination of Second Circuit split decisions on cases that dealt with race and discrimination showed no clear ideological pattern in Sotomayor's opinions.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060601966.html |title=Judge's Votes Show No Single Ideology |author=Markon, Jerry |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 7, 2009 | access-date=June 7, 2009 | archive-date=February 4, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204165646/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060601966.html | url-status=live}}

In the Court of Appeals seat, Sotomayor gained a reputation for vigorous and blunt behavior toward lawyers appealing before her, sometimes to the point of brusque and curt treatment or testy interruptions.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29judge.html |title=Sotomayor's Blunt Style Raises Issue of Temperament |author1=Becker, Jo |author2=Liptak, Adam | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=May 28, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-date=May 1, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501010128/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29judge.html | url-status=live}} She was known for extensive preparation for oral arguments and for running a "hot bench", where judges ask lawyers plenty of questions.{{cite news |url=http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2009Jun07/0,4675,USSotomayorTemperament,00.html |title=Taking the measure of Sotomayor's courtroom manner |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=June 6, 2009 |agency=Associated Press | access-date=May 30, 2012 |author=Neumeister, Larry | archive-date=August 14, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814034459/http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2009Jun07/0,4675,USSotomayorTemperament,00.html | url-status=live}} Unprepared lawyers suffered the consequences, but the vigorous questioning was an aid to lawyers seeking to tailor their arguments to the judge's concerns. The 2009 Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, which collected anonymous evaluations of judges by lawyers who appear before them, contained a wide range of reactions to Sotomayor. Comments also diverged among lawyers willing to be named. Attorney Sheema Chaudhry said, "She's brilliant and she's qualified, but I just feel that she can be very, how do you say, temperamental." Defense lawyer Gerald B. Lefcourt said, "She used her questioning to make a point, as opposed to really looking for an answer to a question she did not understand." In contrast, Second Circuit Judge Richard C. Wesley said that his interactions with Sotomayor had been "totally antithetical to this perception that has gotten some traction that she is somehow confrontational." Second Circuit Judge and former teacher Guido Calabresi said his tracking showed that Sotomayor's questioning patterns were no different from those of other members of the court and added, "Some lawyers just don't like to be questioned by a woman. [The criticism] was sexist, plain and simple."

Sotomayor's law clerks regarded her as a valuable and strong mentor, and she said that she viewed them like family.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603762.html |title=Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor Likely to Be on Obama's Supreme Court Shortlist |author=Richburg, Keith B. |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 7, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=November 7, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101107045858/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603762.html | url-status=live}}

In 2005, Senate Democrats suggested Sotomayor, among others, to President George W. Bush as an acceptable nominee to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/judiciary-panel-approves-roberts |title=Judiciary Panel Approves Roberts |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=September 22, 2005 | access-date=May 28, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209192627/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170110,00.html | archive-date=December 9, 2006 | url-status=live }}

In the 2002 decision Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush,Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, [http://openjurist.org/304/f3d/183/center-for-reproductive-law-and-policy-v-w-bush 304 F.3d 183] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530084204/http://openjurist.org/304/f3d/183/center-for-reproductive-law-and-policy-v-w-bush |date=May 30, 2009 }} (2d Cir. 2002) Sotomayor upheld the Bush administration's implementation of the Mexico City Policy, which states that "the United States will no longer contribute to separate nongovernmental organizations which perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations."{{cite web |url=http://www.aul.org/2010/04/the-mexico-city-policy/ |title=The Mexico City Policy |publisher=Americans United for Life|access-date=May 30, 2012 |date=April 23, 2010|archive-date=September 25, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110925082937/http://www.aul.org/2010/04/the-mexico-city-policy/|url-status=live}} Sotomayor held that the policy did not constitute a violation of equal protection, as "the government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position, and can do so with public funds."

In Pappas v. Giuliani (2002),Pappas v. Giuliani, 290 F.3d 143 (2d Cir. 2002). Sotomayor dissented from her colleagues' ruling that the New York Police Department could terminate from his desk job an employee who sent racist materials through the mail. Sotomayor argued that the First Amendment protected speech by the employee "away from the office, on [his] own time", even if that speech was "offensive, hateful, and insulting", and that therefore the employee's First Amendment claim should have gone to trial rather than being dismissed on summary judgment.{{cite news |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018353.php |title=Sotomayor: The Record |last=Benen |first=Steve |author-link=Steve Benen |date=May 27, 2009 |work=The Washington Monthly|access-date=June 2, 2009|archive-date=May 30, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530082329/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018353.php|url-status=live}}

In 2005, Sotomayor wrote the opinion for United States v. Quattrone.United States v. Quattrone, [http://openjurist.org/402/f3d/304/united-states-v-quattrone-abc-lp-lllp-lp 402 F.3d 304] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111114182502/http://openjurist.org/402/f3d/304/united-states-v-quattrone-abc-lp-lllp-lp |date=November 14, 2011 }} (2d Cir. 2005). Frank Quattrone had been on trial on charges of obstructing investigations related to technology IPOs. After the first trial ended in a deadlocked jury and a mistrial, some members of the media had wanted to publish the names of the jurors deciding Quattrone's case, and a district court had issued an order barring the publication, even though their names had previously been disclosed in open court. In United States v. Quattrone, Sotomayor wrote the opinion for the Second Circuit panel striking down this order on First Amendment grounds, stating that the media should be free to publish the names of the jurors. Sotomayor held that although it was important to protect the fairness of the retrial, the district court's order was an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech and violated the right of the press "to report freely on events that transpire in an open courtroom".

In 2008, Sotomayor was on a three-judge panel in Doninger v. NiehoffDoninger v. Niehoff, [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/2nd/073885p.pdf Doninger v. Niehoff, 527 F.3d 41] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821170932/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/2nd/073885p.pdf |date=August 21, 2008 }} (2d Cir. 2008). that unanimously affirmed, in an opinion written by Second Circuit Judge Debra Livingston, the district court's judgment that Lewis S. Mills High School did not violate the First Amendment rights of a student when it barred her from running for student government after she called the superintendent and other school officials "douchebags" in a blog post written while off-campus that encouraged students to call an administrator and "piss her off more". Judge Livingston held that the district judge did not abuse her discretion in holding that the student's speech "foreseeably create[d] a risk of substantial disruption within the school environment",Doninger v. Niehoff, p. 15. which is the precedent in the Second Circuit for when schools may regulate off-campus speech. Although Sotomayor did not write this opinion, she has been criticized by some who disagree with it.{{cite news |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives |title=Sotomayor had key role in Doninger case |work=New Britain Herald |date=May 28, 2009 |author=Collins, Steve |access-date=August 8, 2014 |archive-date=October 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20111010010211/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives |url-status=live}}

Sotomayor was part of the three-judge Second Circuit panel that affirmed the district court's ruling in Maloney v. Cuomo (2009).Maloney v. Cuomo, 554 F.3d 56 (2d Cir. 2009) Maloney was arrested for possession of nunchucks, which at the time were illegal in New York; Maloney argued that this law violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms. The Second Circuit's per curiam opinion noted that the Supreme Court has not, so far, ever held that the Second Amendment is binding against state governments. On the contrary, in Presser v. Illinois (1886), the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment "is a limitation only upon the power of Congress and the national government, and not upon that of the state". With respect to the Presser v. Illinois precedent, the panel stated that only the Supreme Court has "the prerogative of overruling its own decisions,"{{cite news |author=Barnes, Robert |title=Conservative Judges Echo Sotomayor in Gun Ruling |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060203379.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 3, 2009 | access-date=June 4, 2009 | archive-date=January 22, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122105447/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060203379.html | url-status=live}} and the recent Supreme Court case of District of Columbia v. Heller (which struck down the District's gun ban as unconstitutional) did "not invalidate this longstanding principle". The panel upheld the lower court's decision dismissing Maloney's challenge to New York's law against possession of nunchucks.{{cite news |author=Goldstein, Tom |url=http://www.scotusblog.com/2009/05/judge-sotomayors-appellate-opinions-in-civil-cases/ |title=Judge Sotomayor's Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases |publisher=SCOTUSblog |date=May 15, 2009 |access-date=September 19, 2010 |author-link=Tom Goldstein |archive-date=August 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100812034031/http://www.scotusblog.com/2009/05/judge-sotomayors-appellate-opinions-in-civil-cases/ |url-status=live}} On June 2, 2009, a Seventh Circuit panel, including the prominent and heavily cited judges Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook, unanimously agreed with Maloney v. Cuomo, citing the case in their decision turning back a challenge to Chicago's gun laws and noting the Supreme Court precedents remain in force until altered by the Supreme Court itself.

In N.G. & S.G. ex rel. S.C. v. Connecticut (2004),N.G. & S.G. ex rel. S.C. v. Connecticut, [http://openjurist.org/382/f3d/225/ng-sg-sc-v-connecticut 382 F.3d. 225] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120121005/http://openjurist.org/382/f3d/225/ng-sg-sc-v-connecticut |date=November 20, 2011 }} (2d Cir. 2004). Sotomayor dissented from her colleagues' decision to uphold a series of strip searches of "troubled adolescent girls" in juvenile detention centers. While Sotomayor agreed that some of the strip searches at issue in the case were lawful, she would have held that due to "the severely intrusive nature of strip searches", they should not be allowed "in the absence of individualized suspicion, of adolescents who have never been charged with a crime". She argued that an "individualized suspicion" rule was more consistent with Second Circuit precedent than the majority's rule.

In Leventhal v. Knapek (2001),Leventhal v. Knapek, [http://openjurist.org/266/f3d/64 266 F.3d 64] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118185847/http://openjurist.org/266/f3d/64 |date=January 18, 2012 }} (2d Cir. 2001). Sotomayor rejected a Fourth Amendment challenge by a U.S. Department of Transportation employee whose employer searched his office computer. She held that, "Even though [the employee] had some expectation of privacy in the contents of his office computer, the investigatory searches by the DOT did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights" because here "there were reasonable grounds to believe" that the search would reveal evidence of "work-related misconduct".

In 2004, Sotomayor was part of the judge panel that ruled in Swedenburg v. Kelly that New York's law prohibiting out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to consumers in New York was constitutional even though in-state wineries were allowed to. The case, which invoked the 21st Amendment, was appealed and attached to another case. The case reached the Supreme Court later on as Swedenburg v. Kelly and was overruled in a 5–4 decision that found the law was discriminatory and unconstitutional.{{cite news |author=Daley, Bill |title=Sotomayor and wine: One pro's perspective |url=http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/thestew/2009/05/sotomayor-and-wine-one-pros-perspective.html |work=Chicago Tribune |date=May 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303171733/http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/thestew/2009/05/sotomayor-and-wine-one-pros-perspective.html |archive-date=March 3, 2012}}

Sotomayor was involved in the high-profile case Ricci v. DeStefano that initially upheld the right of the City of New Haven to throw out its test for firefighters and start over with a new test, because the city believed the test had a "disparate impact"{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10scotus.html |title=Justices to Hear White Firefighters' Bias Claims |work=The New York Times |date=April 9, 2009 |author=Liptak, Adam | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=February 2, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202040029/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10scotus.html | url-status=live}} on minority firefighters. (No black firefighters qualified for promotion under the test, whereas some had qualified under tests used in previous years.) The city was concerned that minority firefighters might sue under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The city chose not to certify the test results and a lower court had previously upheld the city's right to do this. Several white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter who had passed the test, including the lead plaintiff who has dyslexia and had put extra effort into studying, sued the City of New Haven, claiming that their rights were violated. A Second Circuit panel that included Sotomayor first issued a brief, unsigned summary order (not written by Sotomayor) affirming the lower court's ruling.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/politics/06ricci.html |title=New Scrutiny of Judge's Most Controversial Case |author=Liptak, Adam |work=The New York Times |date=June 5, 2009 | access-date=July 14, 2009 | archive-date=October 4, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004031108/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/politics/06ricci.html | url-status=live}} Sotomayor's former mentor José A. Cabranes, by now a fellow judge on the court, objected to this handling and requested that the court hear it en banc.{{cite news |author=Taylor Jr., Stuart |work=National Journal |title=How Ricci Almost Disappeared |url=http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/07/how-ricci-almost.php | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714004747/http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/07/how-ricci-almost.php | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 14, 2009 |date=July 10, 2009 | access-date=July 14, 2009 | author-link=Stuart Taylor Jr.}} Sotomayor voted with a 7–6 majority not to rehear it and a slightly expanded ruling was issued, but a strong dissent by Cabranes led to the case reaching the Supreme Court in 2009. There it was overruled in a 5–4 decision that found the white firefighters had been victims of racial discrimination when they were denied promotion.{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2936044120090629 |title=US top court rules against city on race promotion |work=Reuters |date=June 29, 2009 |first=James |last=Vicini | access-date=July 2, 2017 | archive-date=September 18, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918045503/http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2936044120090629 | url-status=live}}

In Clarett v. National Football League (2004),Clarett v. National Football League, 369 F.3d 124 (2d Cir. 2004). Sotomayor upheld the National Football League's eligibility rules requiring players to wait three full seasons after high school graduation before entering the NFL draft. Maurice Clarett challenged these rules, which were part of the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and its players, on antitrust grounds. Sotomayor held that Clarett's claim would upset the established "federal labor law favoring and governing the collective bargaining process".{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52299-2004May24.html?nav=rss_sports |title=Judges Rule Against Clarett |last=Maske |first=Mark |date=May 24, 2004 |newspaper=The Washington Post |page=D3|access-date=June 2, 2009|archive-date=November 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108152828/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52299-2004May24.html?nav=rss_sports|url-status=live}}

In Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Dabit (2005),Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Dabit, 395 F.3d 25 (2d Cir. 2005). Sotomayor wrote a unanimous opinion that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 did not preempt class action claims in state courts by stockbrokers alleging misleading inducement to buy or sell stocks. The Supreme Court handed down an 8–0 decision stating that the Act did preempt such claims, thereby overruling Sotomayor's decision.

In Specht v. Netscape Communications Corp. (2001),Specht v. Netscape Communications Corp., [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=017860v2&exact=1 150 F. Supp. 2d 585] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618103627/http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=017860v2&exact=1 |date=June 18, 2006 }} (2d Cir. 2001). she ruled that the license agreement of Netscape's Smart Download software did not constitute a binding contract because the system did not give "sufficient notice" to the user.{{cite web |url=http://www.zvulony.com/browse_wrap.html |title=Are Browse Wrap (Terms of Use) Agreements Binding? |author=Zvulony, Gil |date=March 2005 |publisher=Zvulony & Co. | access-date=June 4, 2010 | archive-date=April 15, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415161137/http://www.zvulony.com/browse_wrap.html | url-status=live}}

In Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko (2000),Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko, 299 F.3d 374 (2d Cir. 2000). Sotomayor, writing for the court, supported the right of an individual to sue a private corporation working on behalf of the federal government for alleged violations of that individual's constitutional rights. Reversing a lower court decision, Sotomayor found that the Bivens doctrine—which allows suits against individuals working for the federal government for constitutional rights violations—could be applied to the case of a former prisoner seeking to sue the private company operating the federal halfway house facility in which he resided. The Supreme Court reversed Sotomayor's ruling in a 5–4 decision, saying that the Bivens doctrine could not be expanded to cover private entities working on behalf of the federal government. Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer dissented, siding with Sotomayor's original ruling.

In Gant v. Wallingford Board of Education (1999),Gant v. Wallingford Board of Education, 195 F.3d 134 (1999). the parents of a black student alleged that he had been harassed due to his race and had been discriminated against when he was transferred from a first grade class to a kindergarten class without parental consent, while similarly situated white students were treated differently. Sotomayor agreed with the dismissal of the harassment claims due to lack of evidence, but would have allowed the discrimination claim to go forward. She wrote in dissent that the grade transfer was "contrary to the school's established policies" as well as its treatment of white students, which "supports the inference that race discrimination played a role".

In Krimstock v. Kelly (2002),Krimstock v. Kelly, 306 F.3d 40 (2d Cir. 2002) Sotomayor wrote an opinion halting New York City's practice of seizing the motor vehicles of drivers accused of driving while intoxicated and some other crimes and holding those vehicles for "months or even years" during criminal proceedings. Noting the importance of cars to many individuals' livelihoods or daily activities, she held that it violated individuals' due process rights to hold the vehicles without permitting the owners to challenge the city's continued possession of their property.

In Brody v. Village of Port Chester (2003 and 2005),Brody v. Village of Port Chester, 345 F.3d 103 (2d Cir. 2003) and Brody v. Village of Port Chester, 434 F.3d 121 (2d Cir. 2005). a takings case, Sotomayor first ruled in 2003 for a unanimous panel that a property owner in Port Chester, New York was permitted to challenge the state's Eminent Domain Procedure Law. A district court subsequently rejected the plaintiff's claims and upon appeal the case found itself again with the Second Circuit. In 2005, Sotomayor ruled with a panel majority that the property owner's due process rights had been violated by lack of adequate notice to him of his right to challenge a village order that his land should be used for a redevelopment project. However, the panel supported the village's taking of the property for public use.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/package/supremecourt/sotomayor-on-the-issues.html?hpid=topnews |title=Sotomayor on the Issues |newspaper=The Washington Post | access-date=August 22, 2009 | archive-date=November 8, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108170206/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/package/supremecourt/sotomayor-on-the-issues.html?hpid=topnews | url-status=live}}

In Didden v. Village of Port Chester (2006),Didden v. Village of Port Chester, 173 Fed.Appx. 931, 2006 WL 898093 (2d Cir. 2006). an unrelated case brought about by the same town's actions, Sotomayor joined a unanimous panel's summary order to uphold a trial court's dismissal—due to a statute of limitations lapse—of a property owner's objection to his land being condemned for a redevelopment project. The ruling further said that even without the lapse, the owner's petition would be denied due to application of the Supreme Court's recent Kelo v. City of New London ruling. The Second Circuit's reasoning drew criticism from libertarian commentators.{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/05/26/supreme-court-nomination-obama-opinions-columnists-sonia-sotomayor.html |title=The Sotomayor Nomination |work=Forbes |date=May 26, 2009 |author=Epstein, Richard A. |author-link=Richard Allen Epstein |access-date=September 14, 2017 |archive-date=November 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171125043738/https://www.forbes.com/2009/05/26/supreme-court-nomination-obama-opinions-columnists-sonia-sotomayor.html |url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://reason.com/blog/show/133709.html |title=Sotomayor on Takings |work=Reason |date=May 26, 2009 |author=Balko, Radley |access-date=May 27, 2009 |archive-date=May 28, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528000243/http://www.reason.com/blog/show/133709.html |url-status=live}}

{{Main|Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination}}

File:Barack Obama & Joe Biden with Sonia Sotamayor.jpg

Following Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election victory, speculation arose that Sotomayor could be a leading candidate for a Supreme Court seat.{{cite news |title=Sonia Sotomayor: Obama's Supreme Court Replacement for Ginsburg? |url=http://www.esquire.com/features/75-most-influential/obama-supreme-court-pick-1008 |work=Esquire |date=February 6, 2009 |access-date=May 1, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415235838/http://www.esquire.com/features/75-most-influential/obama-supreme-court-pick-1008 |archive-date=April 15, 2009}} New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a joint letter to Obama urging him to appoint Sotomayor, or alternatively Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to the Supreme Court if a vacancy should arise during his term.{{cite press release |first=Charles |last=Schumer |author-link=Charles Schumer |author2=Kirsten Gillibrand |title=Schumer, Gillibrand make direct appeal to President Obama recommending he nominate the first Latino to the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur during his term |url=http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/record.cfm?id=311344 |publisher=United States Senate: Charles Schumer |date=April 9, 2009 |access-date=May 1, 2009 |author2-link=Kirsten Gillibrand |archive-date=May 8, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508224120/http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/record.cfm?id=311344 |url-status=live}} The White House first contacted Sotomayor on April 27, 2009, about the possibility of her nomination.{{cite news |author1=Baker, Peter |author2=Becker, Jo | name-list-style=amp |title=Speeches Show Judge's Steady Focus on Diversity and Struggle |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/us/politics/05court.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 4, 2009 | access-date=June 5, 2009 | archive-date=September 8, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908131348/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/us/politics/05court.html | url-status=live}}

On April 30, 2009, Justice David Souter's retirement plans leaked to the press, and Sotomayor received early attention as a possible nominee for Souter's seat to be vacated in June 2009.{{cite news |first=Sam |last=Stein |title=Inside Obama's Court Deliberations: Sotomayor Most Mentioned |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/inside-obamas-court-delib_n_194887.html |work=The Huffington Post |date=May 1, 2009 |access-date=May 2, 2009 |archive-date=May 3, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503105426/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/inside-obamas-court-delib_n_194887.html |url-status=live}} In May 2009, however, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe urged Obama not to appoint Sotomayor, writing that "she's not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is," and that "her reputation for being something of a bully could well make her liberal impulses backfire and simply add to the fire power of the Roberts/Alito/Scalia/Thomas wing of the court."{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Pete |title=Letter to Obama: Sotomayor not that smart |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39899713 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925224059/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39899713 |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 25, 2021 |date=October 28, 2010 |work=NBC News | access-date=December 24, 2021}}{{cite web |last1=Gerstein |first1=Josh |title=Tribe trashed Sotomayor to Obama |url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2010/10/tribe-trashed-sotomayor-to-obama-030338 |date=October 28, 2010 |work=Politico | access-date=December 24, 2021}}{{cite web |title=Letter from Laurence H. Tribe to President Barack Obama |url=http://eppc.org/docLib/20101028_tribeletter.pdf |date=May 4, 2009 | access-date=December 24, 2021}}

On May 25, Obama informed Sotomayor of his choice; she later said, "I had my [hand] over my chest, trying to calm my beating heart, literally."{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-09-24-sotomayor_N.htm |title=Sotomayor says Obama's job offer set her heart racing |author=Biskupic, Joan | author-link=Joan Biskupic |newspaper=USA Today |date=September 25, 2009 | access-date=October 14, 2009 |url-status=dead | archive-date=September 28, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090928111328/http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-09-24-sotomayor_N.htm}} On May 26, 2009, Obama nominated her.{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Baker |author2=Zeleney, Jeff |title=Obama Selects Sotomayor for Court |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/politics/27court.html |work=The New York Times |date=May 26, 2009 |access-date=February 12, 2017 |archive-date=February 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205074619/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/politics/27court.html |url-status=live}} She became only the second jurist to be nominated to three different judicial positions by three different presidents.{{cite news |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/07/68494597/1 |title=Sotomayor hearing: Republicans get their last chance |author=Jackson, David |work=USA Today |date=July 16, 2009 | access-date=August 22, 2009 | archive-date=July 20, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090720114352/http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/07/68494597/1 | url-status=live}} The selection appeared to closely match Obama's presidential campaign promise that he would nominate judges who had "the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old."Tushnet, In the Balance, p. 77.

Sotomayor's nomination won praise from Democrats and liberals, and Democrats appeared to have sufficient votes to confirm her.{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-seeks-to-pave-smooth-path-to-confirmation-for-sotomayor/ |title=White House Seeks to Pave Smooth Path to Confirmation for Sotomayor |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531000518/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/29/white-house-seeks-pave-smooth-path-confirmation-sotomayor/ | url-status=live}} The strongest criticism of her nomination came from conservatives and some Republican senators regarding a line she had used in similar forms in a number of her speeches, particularly in a 2001 Berkeley Law lecture: "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."

Sotomayor had made similar remarks in other speeches between 1994 and 2003, including one she submitted as part of her confirmation questionnaire for the Court of Appeals in 1998, but they had attracted little attention at the time.{{cite news |url=http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/legal_beat/2009/06/sotomayor-repeatedly-reference.html |title=Sotomayor Repeatedly Referenced 'Wise Woman' in Speeches |author=Stern, Seth |work=CQPolitics |date=June 4, 2009 | access-date=June 5, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611162736/http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/legal_beat/2009/06/sotomayor-repeatedly-reference.html | archive-date=June 11, 2009}}{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/05/sotomayor.speeches/ |title=Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' comment a staple of her speeches |author=Bash, Dana and Sherman, Emily |publisher=CNN |date=June 8, 2009 | access-date=July 13, 2009 | archive-date=July 1, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090701000531/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/05/sotomayor.speeches/ | url-status=live}} The remark now became widely known. The rhetoric quickly became inflamed, with radio commentator Rush Limbaugh and former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich calling Sotomayor a "racist" (although the latter later backtracked from that claim),{{cite news |first=Julie Hirschfeld |last=Davis |url=http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-sotomayor_04nat.ART.State.Edition1.51012d7.html |title=Gingrich backtracks on calling Sotomayor a racist |date=June 4, 2009 | access-date=June 3, 2009 |work=The Dallas Morning News | archive-date=June 7, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607064531/http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-sotomayor_04nat.ART.State.Edition1.51012d7.html | url-status=live}} while John Cornyn and other Republican senators denounced such attacks but said that Sotomayor's approach was troubling.{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ahtJzE6Msqh4&refer=us |title=Gibbs Says Sotomayor Word Choice in Speech Was 'Poor' (Update1) |publisher=Bloomberg News |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-begin-to-find-voice-on-racial-aspects-of-sotomayor-nomination/ |title=Republicans Begin to Find Voice on Racial Aspects of Sotomayor Nomination |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=May 31, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=February 16, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216164920/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/31/republicans-begin-voice-racial-aspects-sotomayor-nomination/ | url-status=live}} Backers of Sotomayor offered a variety of explanations in defense of the remark,{{cite news |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23145.html |title=Democrats differ on 'wise Latina' defenses |author1=Vogel, Kenneth P. |author2=Gerstein, Josh | name-list-style=amp |work=Politico |date=June 1, 2009 | access-date=June 4, 2009 | archive-date=June 3, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090603190458/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23145.html | url-status=live}} and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that Sotomayor's word choice in 2001 had been "poor". Sotomayor subsequently clarified her remark through Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy, saying that while life experience shapes who one is, "ultimately and completely" a judge follows the law regardless of personal background.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/politics/03judge.html |title=Parties Plot Strategy as Sotomayor Visits Capitol |author1=Herszenhorn, David M. |author2=Hulse, Carl | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=June 2, 2009 | access-date=June 3, 2009 | archive-date=October 16, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016064816/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/politics/03judge.html | url-status=live}}

Of her cases, the Second Circuit rulings in Ricci v. DeStefano received the most attention during the early nomination discussion,{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/did-firefighters-stand-a-chance-against-sotomayor/ |title=Did Firefighters Stand a Chance Against Sotomayor? |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=June 11, 2009 | access-date=August 22, 2014 | archive-date=August 26, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826153718/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/12/did-firefighters-stand-chance-sotomayor/ | url-status=live}} motivated by the Republican desire to focus on the reverse racial discrimination aspect of the case. In the midst of her confirmation process the Supreme Court overturned that ruling on June 29. A third line of Republican attack against Sotomayor was based on her ruling in Maloney v. Cuomo and was motivated by gun ownership advocates concerned about her interpretation of Second Amendment rights.Coyle, The Roberts Court, pp. 254–255. Some of the fervor with which conservatives and Republicans viewed the Sotomayor nomination was due to their grievances over the history of federal judicial nomination battles going back to the 1987 Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/politics/26confirm.html |title=Old Confirmation Wars Fueling Some Critics Now |author=Lewis, Neil A. |work=The New York Times |date=June 25, 2009 | access-date=June 26, 2009 | archive-date=May 11, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511172542/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/politics/26confirm.html | url-status=live}}

A Gallup poll released a week after the nomination showed 54% of Americans in favor of Sotomayor's confirmation compared with 28% in opposition.{{cite news |title=Sotomayor's confirmation backed by majority of Americans, poll says |author=Silva, Mark |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=June 2, 2009}} A June 12 Fox News poll showed 58% of the public disagreeing with her "wise Latina" remark but 67% saying the remark should not disqualify her from serving on the Supreme Court.{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/fox-news-poll-46-percent-would-vote-to-confirm-sotomayor |title=FOX News Poll: 46 Percent Would Vote To Confirm Sotomayor |author=Blanton, Dana |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=June 12, 2009 | access-date=June 12, 2009 | archive-date=June 16, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616123432/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526036,00.html | url-status=live}} The American Bar Association gave her a unanimous "well qualified" assessment, its highest mark for professional qualification.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/07/sotomayor.aba/ |title=Sotomayor rated 'well qualified' by lawyers' group |author=Mears, Bill |publisher=CNN |date=July 7, 2009 | access-date=July 7, 2009 | archive-date=July 10, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710105908/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/07/sotomayor.aba/ | url-status=live}} Following the Ricci overruling, Rasmussen Reports and CNN/Opinion Research polls showed that the public was now sharply divided, largely along partisan and ideological lines, as to whether Sotomayor should be confirmed.{{cite news |url=http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/june_2009/public_support_for_sotomayor_falls_after_supreme_court_reversal |title=Public Support for Sotomayor Falls After Supreme Court Reversal |publisher=Rasmussen Reports |date=July 1, 2009 | access-date=July 10, 2009 | archive-date=July 14, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714131819/http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/june_2009/public_support_for_sotomayor_falls_after_supreme_court_reversal | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/10/cnn-poll-do-americans-want-sotomayor-confirmed/ |title=CNN Poll: Do Americans want Sotomayor confirmed? |author=Steinhauser, Paul |publisher=CNN |date=July 10, 2009 | access-date=July 10, 2009 | archive-date=July 15, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090715113630/http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/10/cnn-poll-do-americans-want-sotomayor-confirmed/ | url-status=dead}}

File:Sonia Sotomayor on first day of confirmation hearings.jpg

Sotomayor's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee began on July 13, 2009, during which she backed away from her "wise Latina" remark, declaring it "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat" and stating that "I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judgment."{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31904261 |title=Sotomayor denies bias in 'wise Latina' remark |agency=Associated Press |work=NBC News |date=July 14, 2009 | access-date=July 14, 2009 | archive-date=July 14, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714221453/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/31904261 | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56B0TA20090714 |title=Sotomayor cool under Republican grilling |author1=Quinn, Andrew |author2=Vicini, James | name-list-style=amp |work=Reuters |date=July 14, 2009 | access-date=July 14, 2009 | archive-date=July 16, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716122203/http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56B0TA20090714 | url-status=live}} When Republican senators confronted her regarding other remarks from her past speeches, she pointed to her judicial record and said she had never let her own life experiences or opinions influence her decisions.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071400992.html |title=Sotomayor Emphasizes Objectivity, Explains 'Wise Latina' Remark |author=Barnes, Robert, Kane, Paul, and Goldstein, Amy |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 15, 2009 | access-date=August 7, 2014 | archive-date=July 16, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716065747/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071400992.html | url-status=live}} Republican senators said that while her rulings to this point might be largely traditional, they feared her Supreme Court rulings—where there is more latitude with respect to precedent and interpretation—might be more reflective of her speeches.{{cite news |url=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202432278892&slreturn=1 |title=Republican senators question Sotomayor on abortion issues |author1=Mauro, Tony |author2=Ingram, David | name-list-style=amp |work=The National Law Journal |date=July 15, 2009 | access-date=July 15, 2009 | archive-date=June 7, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607231447/http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202432278892&slreturn=1 | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/us/politics/16confirm.html |title=Queries on Abortion and Guns Fail to Break Judge's Stride |author1=Stolberg, Sheryl Gay |author2=Lewis, Neil A. | name-list-style=amp |work=The New York Times |date=July 15, 2009 | access-date=July 16, 2009 | archive-date=January 24, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124045240/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/us/politics/16confirm.html | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor defended her position in Ricci as following applicable precedent. When asked whom she admired, she pointed to Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo.{{cite news |author=Harder, Amy |url=http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/07/sotomayor-deflects-kohls-quest.php |title=Sotomayor Deflects Kohl's Questions |work=National Journal |date=July 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100903000532/http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/07/sotomayor-deflects-kohls-quest.php |archive-date=September 3, 2010}} In general, Sotomayor followed the hearings formula of recent past nominees by avoiding stating personal positions, declining to take positions on controversial issues likely to come before the Court, agreeing with senators from both parties, and repeatedly affirming that as a justice she would just apply the law.{{cite news |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25098.html |title=Left and right both let down by Sonia Sotomayor hearings |author=Raju, Manu |work=Politico |date=July 18, 2009 | access-date=July 20, 2009 | archive-date=July 20, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090720005806/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25098.html | url-status=live}}

On July 28, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13–6 in favor of Sotomayor's nomination, sending it to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. Every Democrat voted in her favor, as did one Republican, Lindsey Graham.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/28/sotomayor.panel.vote/index.html |title=Senate Judiciary Committee votes to confirm Sotomayor |publisher=CNN |date=July 28, 2009 | access-date=July 29, 2009 | archive-date=July 28, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090728202644/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/28/sotomayor.panel.vote/index.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/28/sotomayor-senate-judiciary-committee |title=Sotomayor confirmed by Senate judiciary committee |last=Nasaw |first=Daniel |date=July 28, 2009 |work=The Guardian| access-date=June 2, 2019| archive-date=June 2, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602232916/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/28/sotomayor-senate-judiciary-committee| url-status=live}} On August 6, 2009, Sotomayor was confirmed by the full Senate by a vote of 68–31. All Democrats present, along with the Senate's two Independents plus nine Republicans, voted for her.{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-confirms-sonia-sotomayor-to-u-s-supreme-court |title=Senate Confirms Sonia Sotomayor to U.S. Supreme Court |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=August 6, 2009 | access-date=August 6, 2014 | archive-date=November 2, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102054817/https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-confirms-sonia-sotomayor-to-u-s-supreme-court | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2009/08/06/sotomayor-confirmed-as-first-hispanic-supreme-court-justice-in-victory-for-obama.html |title=Sotomayor Confirmed as First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice in Victory for Obama |author=Wong, Queenie |work=U.S. News & World Report |date=August 8, 2009 | access-date=August 21, 2009 | archive-date=September 22, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922183315/http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2009/08/06/sotomayor-confirmed-as-first-hispanic-supreme-court-justice-in-victory-for-obama.html | url-status=live}}

President Obama commissioned Sotomayor on the day of her confirmation,{{cite web |url=http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/sotomayor-ceremony-transcript.pdf |title=Transcript of Investiture Ceremony |date=September 8, 2009 |publisher=Supreme Court of the United States |access-date=November 14, 2009 |archive-date=October 9, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009171951/http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/sotomayor-ceremony-transcript.pdf |url-status=live}} and her swearing-in ceremony took place on August 8, 2009, at the Supreme Court Building. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the prescribed constitutional and judicial oaths of office, at which time she became the 111th justice (99th associate justice) of the Supreme Court.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/08/sotomayor/index.html |title=Sotomayor takes oath, becomes Supreme Court justice |author=Mears, Bill |publisher=CNN |date=August 8, 2009 | access-date=August 21, 2009 | archive-date=August 21, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821201508/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/08/sotomayor/index.html | url-status=live}} Sotomayor is the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court,{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/08/AR2009080800982.html |title=Sotomayor Becomes First Hispanic Justice in Supreme Court History |author=Goldstein, Amy |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 9, 2009 | access-date=August 6, 2014 | archive-date=August 3, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140803084640/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/08/AR2009080800982.html | url-status=live}}{{efn|name=cardozo-ethnicity|Some sources claim that this distinction belongs to Justice Benjamin Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew believed to be of distant Portuguese descent, who was appointed to the Court in 1932; however, his roots were uncertain, plus, the term "Hispanic" was not in use as an ethnic identifier at the time, and the Portuguese are generally excluded from its meaning.{{cite news |url=http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12454982?source=pkg |author=Sherman, Mark Sherman |title=First Hispanic justice? Some say it was Cardozo |agency=Associated Press |work=The Denver Post |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 30, 2012 | archive-date=July 14, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714151620/http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12454982?source=pkg | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/27hispanic.html |author=Lewis, Neil A. |title=Was a Hispanic Justice on the Court in the '30s? |work=The New York Times |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=June 19, 2009 | archive-date=June 30, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630005302/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/27hispanic.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-05-26-courtcardozo_N.htm?csp=34 |title=Cardozo was first, but was he Hispanic? |work=USA Today |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=June 19, 2009 | archive-date=May 30, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530075859/http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-05-26-courtcardozo_N.htm?csp=34 | url-status=live}}}} and is one of six women who have served on the Court, along with Sandra Day O'Connor (from 1981 to 2006), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (from 1993 to 2020), Elena Kagan (since 2010),{{cite news |url=http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/In-a-New-York-Minute-Kagan-Quickly-Confirmed-100058499.html |title=In a NY Minute: Kagan Quickly Confirmed to Supreme Court |author=Siff, Andrew |publisher=WNBC-TV |date=August 5, 2010 | access-date=August 5, 2010 | archive-date=August 6, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145129/https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/in-a-new-york-minute-kagan-quickly-confirmed/1917099/ | url-status=live}} Amy Coney Barrett (since 2020),{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/26/amy-coney-barrett-senate-vote-confirm-judge-supreme-court/3741746001/ |title=Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority |last1=Wu |first1=Nicholas |last2=Hayes |first2=Christal |publisher=USA Today |date=October 26, 2020 | access-date=October 31, 2020 | archive-date=February 15, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215220129/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/26/amy-coney-barrett-senate-vote-confirm-judge-supreme-court/3741746001/ | url-status=live}} and Ketanji Brown Jackson (since 2022).{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/politics/ketanji-brown-jackson-sworn-in-supreme-court.html |first=Annie |last=Karni |title=Ketanji Brown Jackson Becomes First Black Female Supreme Court Justice |work=The New York Times |date=June 30, 2022 |accessdate=July 1, 2022}} Sotomayor's appointment gave the Court a record six Roman Catholic justices serving at the same time.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/us/politics/31catholics.html |title=Sotomayor Would Be Sixth Catholic Justice, but the Pigeonholing Ends There |author=Goodstein, Laurie |work=The New York Times |date=May 30, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=November 12, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112172240/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/us/politics/31catholics.html | url-status=live}}{{efn|The five Catholics serving at the time Sotomayor joined the Court were: John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy.}}

File:O'Connor, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, and Kagan.jpg, Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan. O'Connor is not wearing a robe because she is retired from the Court.]]

Sotomayor cast her first vote as an associate Supreme Court justice on August 17, 2009, in a stay of execution case.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/us/19scotus.html |title=Sotomayor casts first vote on court |author=Litpak, Adam |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 18, 2009 | access-date=August 5, 2014 | archive-date=August 11, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811014823/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/us/19scotus.html | url-status=live}} She was given a warm welcome onto the Court{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/05/suspreme.court.new.term/index.html |title=Supreme Court begins new term with a new justice |author=Mears, Bill |publisher=CNN |date=October 5, 2009 | access-date=October 14, 2009 | archive-date=October 8, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091008145311/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/05/suspreme.court.new.term/index.html | url-status=live}} and was formally invested in a September 8 ceremony.{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sotomayor-gets-her-judicial-robes/ |title=Sotomayor Gets Her Judicial Robes |author=Bream, Shannon |publisher=Fox News Channel |date=September 8, 2009 | access-date=September 22, 2009 | archive-date=September 13, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090913202459/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/08/sotomayor-gets-judicial-robes/ | url-status=live}} Sotomayor's inaugural case in which she heard arguments was on September 9 during a special session, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. It involved the controversial aspect of the First Amendment and the rights of corporations in campaign finance;{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125314088285517643 |title=Sotomayor Issues Challenge to a Century of Corporate Law |author=Bravin, Jess |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=September 17, 2009 | access-date=September 22, 2009 | archive-date=February 15, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215175756/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125314088285517643 | url-status=live}} Sotomayor dissented.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/us/30scotus.html |title=The Roberts Court Comes of Age |author=Liptak, Adam |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 30, 2010 |page=A1 | author-link=Adam Liptak | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=September 27, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927133111/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/us/30scotus.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |last=Toobin |first=Jeffrey | author-link=Jeffrey Toobin |date=March 22, 2010 |title=After Stevens. What will the Supreme Court be without its liberal leader? |magazine=The New Yorker |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/22/100322fa_fact_toobin | access-date=March 16, 2010 | archive-date=March 16, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100316220548/http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/22/100322fa_fact_toobin | url-status=live}} In her vigorous examination of Floyd Abrams, representing the First Amendment issues in the case, Sotomayor challenged him, questioning 19th century rulings of the Court and saying, "What you are suggesting is that the courts, who created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons, and there could be an argument made that that was the Court's error to start with ... [imbuing] a creature of State law with human characteristics."Coyle, The Roberts Court, pp. 260–264.

Sotomayor's first major written opinion was a dissent in the Berghuis v. Thompkins case dealing with Miranda rights. As her first year neared completion, Sotomayor said she felt swamped by the intensity and heavy workload of the job.{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-sotomayor-20100609,0,5116595.story |title=Sotomayor votes reliably with Supreme Court's liberal wing |author=Savage, David G. |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=June 8, 2010 | access-date=July 3, 2010 | archive-date=August 6, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145132/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-08-la-na-court-sotomayor-20100609-story.html | url-status=live}} During the oral arguments for National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, Sotomayor showed her increasing familiarity with the Court and its protocols by directing the opening questions of the arguments to Donald Verrilli, the Solicitor General who was representing the government's position.Coyle, The Roberts Court, p. 342.

In succeeding Justice Souter, Sotomayor did not change the Court's net philosophical and ideological balance. While many cases are decided unanimously or with different voting coalitions, Sotomayor has continued to be a reliable member of the liberal bloc of the court when the justices divide along the commonly perceived ideological lines.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/us/supreme-courts-recent-term-a-new-phase.html?_r=1&hpw&pagewanted=all |title=Supreme Court Moving Beyond Its Old Divides |author=Liptak, Adam |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 1, 2012 |page=A1 | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=September 11, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911191845/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/us/supreme-courts-recent-term-a-new-phase.html?_r=1&hpw&pagewanted=all | url-status=live}} Specifically, her voting pattern and judicial philosophy has been in close agreement with that of Justices Breyer, Ginsburg and Kagan. During her first couple of years there, Sotomayor voted with Ginsburg and Breyer 90 percent of the time, one of the highest agreement rates on the Court.{{cite web |url=http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Final-Charts-070710-JA.pdf |publisher=SCOTUSblog |title=SCOTUSblog Statpack for the 2009 Term, chart of agreement between justices |date=July 7, 2010|access-date=July 7, 2010|archive-date=July 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722094656/http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Final-Charts-070710-JA.pdf|url-status=live}} In a 2015 article titled "Ranking the Most Liberal Modern Supreme Court Justices", Alex Greer identified Sotomayor as representing a more liberal voting pattern than both Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Alex Greer. "Ranking the Most Liberal Modern Supreme Court Justices". July 6, 2015. InsideGov. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170305002117/http://supreme-court-justices.insidegov.com/stories/5065/ginsburg-sotomayor-liberal-supreme-court-justices] Greer placed Sotomayor as having the most liberal voting history of all the current sitting Justices, and slightly less liberal than her predecessors Thurgood Marshall and John Marshall Harlan II on the Court.

Chief Justice Roberts, together with Justices Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito (and former Justice Scalia) had comprised the identifiable conservative wing of the Court.Coyle, The Roberts Court, p. 4. Although five of the justices on the Supreme Court in 2009 self-identified as having Roman Catholic affiliation, Sotomayor's voting history identifies her singly among them with the liberal bloc of the Court. However, there is a wide divergence among Catholics in general in their approaches to the law. Due to her upbringing and her past jobs and positions, Sotomayor has brought one of the more diverse sets of life experiences to the Court.Tribe and Matz, Uncertain Justice, p. 10.

There have been some deviations from the ideological pattern. In a 2013 book on the Roberts Court, author Marcia Coyle assessed Sotomayor's position on the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment as a strong guarantee of the right of a defendant to confront his or her accusers.Coyle, The Roberts Court, pp. 16–17. Sotomayor's judicial philosophy on the issue is seen as being in parity with Elena Kagan and, unexpectedly for Sotomayor, also in at least partial agreement with the originalist reading of Antonin Scalia when applied to the clause.

On January 20 and 21, 2013, Sotomayor administered the oath to Vice President Joe Biden for the inauguration of his second term. Sotomayor became the first Hispanic and fourth woman to administer the oath to a president or vice president.{{cite news |title=Obama officially begins his second term with oath |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-inauguration-celebration-to-begin-with-oath/2013/01/20/651aa97e-6311-11e2-9e1b-07db1d2ccd5b_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=January 20, 2013 |first1=David |last1=Nakamura |first2=Robert |last2=Barnes|access-date=September 14, 2017|archive-date=March 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305200510/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-inauguration-celebration-to-begin-with-oath/2013/01/20/651aa97e-6311-11e2-9e1b-07db1d2ccd5b_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost|url-status=live}} On January 20, 2021, Sotomayor administered the oath of office to Kamala Harris for her inauguration as vice president, the first woman to ever hold the office.{{Cite news |last=Ariane |first=de Vogue |date=January 20, 2021 |title=Justice Sonia Sotomayor to administer vice presidential oath to Kamala Harris |publisher=CNN |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/sonia-sotomayor-kamala-harris-vice-presidential-oath/index.html|access-date=January 20, 2021|archive-date=January 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120144109/https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/sonia-sotomayor-kamala-harris-vice-presidential-oath/index.html|url-status=live}}

By the end of her fifth year on the Court, Sotomayor had become especially visible in oral arguments and in passionate dissents from various majority rulings, especially those involving issues of race, gender and ethnic identity.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/us/politics/sotomayor-finds-her-voice-among-the-justices.html |title=Sotomayor Finds Her Voice Among Justices |author=Liptak, Adam |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 7, 2014 |page=A1 | author-link=Adam Liptak | access-date=February 12, 2017 | archive-date=July 6, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706005952/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/us/politics/sotomayor-finds-her-voice-among-the-justices.html | url-status=live}} Sotomayor has shown her individuality on the Court in a number of decisions. In her reading of the constitutionality of the Obama health care law favoring the poor and disabled, she sided with Ginsburg against fellow liberals Breyer and Kagan.Coyle, The Roberts Court, p. 8. In dealing with the Chief Justice, Sotomayor had no difficulty in responding to his statement that "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," by stating, "I don't borrow Chief Justice Roberts's description of what color-blindness is... Our society is too complex to use that kind of analysis."Coyle, The Roberts Court, p. 117. In the manufacturer liability case of Williamson v. Mazda, which the Court decided unanimously, she wrote a separate concurring opinion.Tushnet, In the Balance, pp. 198–199. Sotomayor's rapport with her clerks is seen as more formalistic than some of the other justices as she requires detailed and rigorous evaluations of cases she is considering with a table of contents attached.Coyle, The Roberts Court, p. 233. When compared to Kagan directly, one of their colleagues stated, "Neither of them is a shrinking violet". Coyle, in her 2013 book on the Roberts Court, stated that: "Both women are more vocal during arguments than the justices whom they succeeded, and they have energized the moderate-liberal side of the bench."Coyle, The Roberts Court, p. 317.

During her tenure on the Court, Sotomayor has also become recognizable as being among the Court's strongest voices in supporting the rights of the accused.Tribe and Matz, Uncertain Justice, pp. 310–311. She has been identified by Laurence Tribe as the foremost voice on the Court calling for reforming criminal justice adjudication—in particular as it relates misconduct by police and prosecutors, abuses in prisons, concerns about how the death penalty is used, and the potential for loss of privacy—and Tribe has compared her will to reform in general to that of past Chief Justice Earl Warren.Tribe and Matz, Uncertain Justice, pp. 10–11, 268–271.

In January 2019, Bonnie Kristian of The Week wrote that an "unexpected civil libertarian alliance" was developing between Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch "in defense of robust due process rights and skepticism of law enforcement overreach."{{cite magazine |last1=Kristian |first1=Bonnie |title=The unexpected alliance of Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch |url=https://theweek.com/articles/816202/unexpected-alliance-sonia-sotomayor-neil-gorsuch |access-date=January 28, 2019 |magazine=The Week |date=January 16, 2019 |archive-date=January 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128221941/https://theweek.com/articles/816202/unexpected-alliance-sonia-sotomayor-neil-gorsuch |url-status=live}}

Court staff working for Sotomayor have suggested public institutions such as colleges and libraries where she has held lectures, speeches and other events to buy her books to have available for purchase, which reportedly earned Sotomayor $3.7 million. Her court staff has also been promoting Sotomayor's commercial events aimed to sell her own memoir or children's books. Use of government staff is prohibited for such activities in other government branches.{{Cite web |date=July 11, 2023 |title=Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor's staff prodded colleges and libraries to buy her books |url=https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-sotomayor-book-sales-ethics-colleges-b2cb93493f927f995829762cb8338c02 |access-date=July 11, 2023 |website=AP News |language=en}}

File:Sonia Sotomayor (31682851733).jpg

In 2011, Sotomayor wrote the majority opinion in J.D.B. v. North Carolina, in which the Supreme Court held that age is relevant when determining when a person is in police custody for Miranda purposes. J.D.B. was a 13-year-old student enrolled in special education classes whom police had suspected of committing two robberies. A police investigator visited J.D.B. at school, where he was interrogated by the investigator, a uniformed police officer, and school officials. J.D.B. subsequently confessed to his crimes and was convicted. J.D.B. was not given a Miranda warning during the interrogation, nor an opportunity to contact his legal guardian. In determining that a child's age properly informs the Miranda custody analysis, Sotomayor wrote that "to hold... that a child's age is never relevant to whether a suspect has been taken into custody— and thus to ignore the very real differences between children and adults—would be to deny children the full scope of the procedural safeguards that Miranda guarantees to adults".J.D.B. v. North Carolina, [https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-11121.pdf 564 U.S. ___] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118032642/https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-11121.pdf |date=November 18, 2017 }}, (U.S.S.C. 2011) Sotomayor's opinion cited the Court's earlier decisions in Stansbury v. California (holding that a child's age "would have affected how a reasonable person" would "perceive his or her freedom to leave") and Yarborough v. Alvarado (holding that a child's age "generates commonsense conclusions about behavior and perception"). Sotomayor also pointed out that the law recognizes that a child's judgment is not the same as an adult's, in the form of legal disqualifications on children as a class (e.g., limitations on a child's ability to marry without parental consent). Associate Justice Samuel Alito, jointed by three other justices, wrote a dissenting opinion.

In United States v. Alvarez (2012), the Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act (a federal law that criminalized false statements about having received a military medal) on First Amendment grounds. While a 6–3 majority of the Court agreed that the law was an unconstitutional violation of the Free Speech Clause, it could not agree on a single rationale. Sotomayor was among four justices, along with Justices Roberts, Ginsburg and Kennedy, who concluded that a statement's falsity is not enough, by itself, to exclude speech from First Amendment protection. Justices Breyer and Kagan concluded that while false statements were entitled to some protection, the act was invalid because it could have achieved its objectives in less restrictive ways. Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito dissented.Tushnet, In the Balance, pp. 216–217.

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), Sotomayor was part of a 5–4 majority that upheld most of the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (while being part of a dissent against the reliance upon the Constitution's Taxing and Spending Clause rather than Commerce Clause in arriving at the support). Legal writer Jeffrey Toobin wrote, "Sotomayor's concerns tended toward the earthbound and practical. Sometimes, during oral arguments, she would go on tangents involving detailed questions about the facts of cases that would leave her colleagues stupefied, sinking into their chairs. This time, though, she had a simple line of inquiry. States require individuals to buy automobile insurance (implicitly suggesting the unavoidable comparison to health insurance and the fairness of applying the same principle to health insurance as well)."Toobin, The Oath, p. 280. Sotomayor concluded with the incisive rhetorical flourish in the Court directed at the attorneys: "Do you think that if some states decided not to impose an insurance requirement that the federal government would be without power to legislate and require every individual to buy car insurance?" For Toobin, this distinction drawn by Sotomayor was the heart of the argument for the case in which she was part of the prevailing majority opinion.

In 2014, Sotomayor dissented from a 6–3 ruling that granted Wheaton College of Illinois, a religiously affiliated university, an exemption from complying with the Affordable Care Act (ACA)'s mandate on contraception.{{cite news |url=https://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5873611/the-supreme-courts-other-contraceptives-ruling-explained |title=The Supreme Court sided against birth control again, and Sotomayor is not happy about it |first=Adrianna |last=McIntyre |date=July 7, 2014 | access-date=June 13, 2017 | archive-date=February 18, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218085453/http://www.vox.com/2014/7/7/5873611/the-supreme-courts-other-contraceptives-ruling-explained | url-status=live}} The ruling, which came in the immediate wake of the Court's 5–4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, in which the conservative bloc had prevailed, was opposed by the court's three female members: Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Kagan. Writing in dissent, Sotomayor wrote that the case was at odds with the majority's previous statements in Hobby Lobby and said, "Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word ... Not today." Sotomayor stated further her opinion that the decision risked depriving "hundreds of Wheaton's employees and students of their legal entitlement to contraceptive coverage."

Sotomayor was part of a 5–3 majority in Arizona v. United States (2012), holding that several aspects of the Arizona SB 1070 anti-illegal immigration law were preempted by federal immigration statutes.{{cite news |url=http://ktar.com/22/1553093/Supreme-Court-strikes-down-portions-of-Arizonas-SB-1070 |title=Supreme Court upholds portions of Arizona's SB 1070 |publisher=KTAR-FM |date=June 25, 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630032928/http://www.ktar.com/22/1553093/Supreme-Court-strikes-down-portions-of-Arizonas-SB-1070 | archive-date=June 30, 2012 }}Toobin, The Oath, p. 285.

On the Court, Sotomayor has taken positions in favor of an expansive view of the Fourth Amendment protections relating to privacy rights and search and seizure.Matt Ford, [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/justice-sotomayor-fourth-amendment/414948/ Pleading for the Fourth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304191126/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/justice-sotomayor-fourth-amendment/414948/ |date=March 4, 2020 }}, The Atlantic (November 12, 2015).Damon Root, [https://reason.com/2016/07/01/sonia-sotomayor-stands-up-for-the-fourth/ Sonia Sotomayor Stands Up for the Fourth Amendment] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145121/https://reason.com/2016/07/01/sonia-sotomayor-stands-up-for-the-fourth/ |date=August 6, 2021 }}, Reason (July 1, 2016). In United States v. Jones (2012), all nine justices agreed that a warrant was likely to be required before police could place a GPS tracking device on a suspect's car. Most justices sided with a narrow opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, but Sotomayor (in a lone concurrence) advocated a more expansive view of privacy rights in a digital age, calling for a re-assessment of the longstanding third-party doctrine: "It may be necessary to reconsider the premise that an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in information voluntarily disclosed to third parties." The following year, federal judge Richard J. Leon cited this concurrence in his ruling that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' telephony records likely violated the Fourth Amendment.{{cite news |url=http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-sotomayor-undermined-obamas-nsa |title=How Sotomayor undermined Obama's NSA |author=Serwer, Adam |publisher=MSNBC |date=December 23, 2013 | access-date=December 25, 2013 | archive-date=December 25, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225111057/http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-sotomayor-undermined-obamas-nsa | url-status=live}} Law professors Adam Winkler and Laurence Tribe were among those who said that Sotomayor's Jones concurrence had been influential in calling out the need for a new basis in understanding privacy requirements in a world, as she wrote, "in which people reveal a great deal of information about themselves to third parties in the course of carrying out mundane tasks."

In Missouri v. McNeely (2013), Sotomayor wrote the majority opinion holding that a warrant is required before police take a nonconsensual blood test of a motorist suspected of drunk driving. In Navarette v. California (2014), Sotomayor joined Justice Scalia's dissent from an opinion finding no Fourth Amendment violation from a traffic stop and drug seizure based solely on an anonymous tip submitted to 9-1-1. Sotomayor was the lone dissenter in Mullenix v. Luna (2015), a case in which the Court held, per curiam, that an officer who fired six shots at a fleeing fugitive in a high-speed car chase was entitled to qualified immunity; Sotomayor argued that "By sanctioning a 'shoot first, think later' approach to policing, the Court renders the protections of the Fourth Amendment hollow."Mark Joseph Stern, [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/11/sonia-sotomayor-dissents-in-mullenix-police-shooting-case.html Sonia Sotomayor Takes a Stand Against Police Brutality] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113121453/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/11/sonia-sotomayor-dissents-in-mullenix-police-shooting-case.html |date=January 13, 2020 }}, Slate (November 9, 2015).

In Utah v. Strieff, a case involving the exclusionary rule, Sotomayor wrote a dissent from the Court's ruling that evidence obtained as a result of an illegal police stop could be admitted if the stopped person was later found to have an outstanding traffic warrant,[https://harvardlawreview.org/2016/11/utah-v-strieff/ The Supreme Court, 2015 Term — Leading Cases: Utah v. Strieff] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403155722/https://harvardlawreview.org/2016/11/utah-v-strieff/ |date=April 3, 2019 }}, 130 Harv. L. Rev. 337 (2016). writing that it was a "remarkable proposition" that the existence of a warrant could justify a stop illegally based on police officers' "whim or hunch". Echoing her earlier dissent in Heien v. North Carolina (2014), and citing the works of figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sotomayor wrote that Strieff and other Supreme Court Fourth Amendment jurisprudence sent the message "that you are not the citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be catalogued."Allegra M. McLeod, [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691204?mobileUi=0 Police Violence, Constitutional Complicity, and Another Vantage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145124/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691204?mobileUi=0& |date=August 6, 2021 }}, The Supreme Court Review 2016 (2016): pp. 157-195.Matt Ford, [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/utah-streiff-sotomayor/487922/ Justice Sotomayor's Ringing Dissent] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416100658/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/utah-streiff-sotomayor/487922/ |date=April 16, 2019 }}, The Atlantic (June 20, 2016).

In Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson (2021), a case regarding an abortion law in Texas that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers, Sotomayor wrote a sharp dissenting opinion, joined by justices Breyer and Kagan. By a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court allowed the Texas law to stay in effect. Sotomayor concluded that "Today's fractured Court evinces no such courage. While the Court properly holds that this suit may proceed against the licensing officials, it errs gravely in foreclosing relief against state-court officials and the state attorney general. By so doing, the Court leaves all manner of constitutional rights more vulnerable than ever before, to the great detriment of our Constitution and our Republic."{{Cite web |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf |title=WHOLE WOMAN'S HEALTH ET AL. v. JACKSON, JUDGE, DISTRICT COURT OF TEXAS, 114TH DISTRICT, ET AL. |website=supremecourt.gov |date=December 10, 2021|access-date=December 10, 2021}}

In Department of State v. Muñoz (2024), Sotomayor in her dissent described Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) as being the "eradication of the right to abortion."Muñoz, slip op. at [https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-334_e18f.pdf#page=26 2] (Sotomayor, J., dissenting).

File:Sonia Sotomayor 8 at stadium.jpg in 2007]]

Sotomayor was an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law from 1998 to 2007.{{cite web |url=http://www.law.nyu.edu/news/SOTOMAYOR_SUPREME_COURT |title=Judge Sonia Sotomayor, former adjunct professor at NYU Law, nominated to the Supreme Court |publisher=New York University School of Law | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=September 21, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921060049/http://www.law.nyu.edu/news/SOTOMAYOR_SUPREME_COURT | url-status=live}} There she taught trial and appellate advocacy as well as a federal appellate court seminar. Beginning in 1999, she was also a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School in a paying, adjunct faculty position. While there she created and co-taught a class called the Federal Appellate Externship each semester from 2000 until her departure; it combined classroom, moot court, and Second Circuit chambers work.{{cite news |url=http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/05/26/obama-picks-columbia-lecturer-sotomayor-supreme-court-nominee |title=Obama picks Columbia lecturer Sotomayor as Supreme Court nominee |author=Kirschenbaum, Kim |work=Columbia Daily Spectator |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531175622/http://columbiaspectator.com/2009/05/26/obama-picks-columbia-lecturer-sotomayor-supreme-court-nominee | url-status=live}} She became a member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton University in 2006, concluding her term in 2011.{{cite news |url=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/05/13/23695/ |title=At Princeton, Sotomayor '76 excelled at academics, extracurriculars |author=Debenedetti, Gabriel |work=The Daily Princetonian |date=May 13, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090516051408/http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/05/13/23695/ | archive-date=May 16, 2009 | url-status=dead}}{{cite news |url=https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S30/75/82G19/index.xml?section=topstories |title=Eight new trustees named, Hall to chair executive committee |author=Quiñones, Eric |work=News at Princeton |publisher=Princeton University |date=June 9, 2011 | access-date=June 10, 2011 | archive-date=October 20, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020200352/http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S30/75/82G19/index.xml?section=topstories | url-status=live}} In 2008, Sotomayor became a member of the Belizean Grove, an invitation-only women's group modeled after the men's Bohemian Grove.{{cite news |last=Vogel |first=Kenneth P. |title=Sonia Sotomayor found friends in elite group |work=Politico |date=June 4, 2009 |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23375.html | access-date=June 5, 2009 | archive-date=June 8, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090608075931/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23375.html | url-status=live}} On June 19, 2009, Sotomayor resigned from the Belizean Grove after Republican politicians voiced concerns over the group's membership policy.{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/19/sotomayor.womens.club/index.html |title=Sotomayor resigns from women's club |publisher=CNN |date=June 19, 2009 | access-date=June 19, 2009 | archive-date=June 20, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090620035235/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/19/sotomayor.womens.club/index.html | url-status=live}}

Sotomayor has maintained a public presence, mostly through making speeches, since joining the federal judiciary and throughout her time on the Supreme Court. She gave over 180 speeches between 1993 and 2009, about half of which either focused on issues of ethnicity or gender or were delivered to minority or women's groups.{{cite news |url=http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-ussoto2112903197jun20,0,5157937.story |title=Sotomayor's views in speeches scrutinized |author=Brune, Tom |work=Newsday |date=June 20, 2009 |access-date=June 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625062304/http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-ussoto2112903197jun20%2C0%2C5157937.story |archive-date=June 25, 2009 |url-status=dead}} While on the Supreme Court she has been invited to give commencement addresses at a number of universities including New York University (2012), Yale University (2013), and the University of Puerto Rico (2014).{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31121011 |title=Sotomayor's speeches detail life, uncertainty |agency=Associated Press |work=NBC News |date=June 5, 2009 | access-date=August 4, 2014 | archive-date=August 8, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808050640/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/31121011/ns/politics-supreme_court/t/sotomayors-speeches-detail-life-uncertainties/#.U-ApQOkg9fw | url-status=live}} Her speeches have tended to give a more defined picture of her worldview than her rulings on the bench. The themes of her speeches have often focused on ethnic identity and experience, the need for diversity, and America's struggle with the implications of its diverse makeup. She has also presented her career achievements as an example of the success of affirmative action policies in university admissions, saying "I am the perfect affirmative action baby" in regard to her belief that her admission test scores were not comparable to those of her classmates.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/politics/11judge.html |title=Videos Shed New Light on Sotomayor's Positions |author=Savage, Charlie |work=The New York Times |date=June 10, 2009 | access-date=June 16, 2009 | archive-date=November 1, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101032058/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/politics/11judge.html | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/11/sotomayor.affirmative.action/index.html |title=Sotomayor says she was 'perfect affirmative action baby' |author=Mears, Bill |publisher=CNN |date=June 11, 2009 | access-date=June 16, 2009 | archive-date=June 15, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615180616/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/11/sotomayor.affirmative.action/index.html | url-status=live}} During 2012 while already on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor made two appearances as herself on the children's television program Sesame Street, explaining what a vocational career is in general and then demonstrating how a judge hears a case.{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FizspmIJbAw |title=Sesame Street: Sonia Sotomayor: "The Justice Hears a Case." |publisher=YouTube |date=February 3, 2012 | access-date=February 19, 2016 | archive-date=February 18, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160218210306/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FizspmIJbAw | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHICz5MYxNQ |title=Sesame Street: Sonia Sotomayor and Abby – Career |publisher=YouTube |date=November 9, 2012 | access-date=February 19, 2016 | archive-date=May 5, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505150239/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHICz5MYxNQ | url-status=live}}

In July 2010, Sotomayor signed a contract with Alfred A. Knopf to publish a memoir about the early part of her life.{{cite web |title=Sonia Sotomayor to Publish Memoir |url=http://knopf.knopfdoubleday.com/2010/07/12/sonia-sotomayor-to-publish-memoir/ |publisher=Knopf Publishers|access-date=January 24, 2013 |date=July 12, 2010|archive-date=January 25, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130125053120/http://knopf.knopfdoubleday.com/2010/07/12/sonia-sotomayor-to-publish-memoir/|url-status=live}} She received an advance of nearly $1.2 million for the work,{{cite news |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/justice-sotomayor-gets-over-1-million-for-memoir-2370027.php |title=Justice Sotomayor gets over $1 million for memoir |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=May 31, 2011 | access-date=June 11, 2011 | archive-date=January 19, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119193553/http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-05-31/entertainment/29602929_1_memoir-justice-sotomayor-grandfather-s-son | url-status=live}} which was published in January 2013 and titled My Beloved World{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/us/politics/sonia-sotomayor-makes-herself-at-home-in-washington.html?pagewanted=all |title=Washington Is Home (for Now at Least), but Sotomayor Stays True to New York |author=Liptak, Adam |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 13, 2013 | access-date=January 14, 2013 | archive-date=January 13, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113201834/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/us/politics/sonia-sotomayor-makes-herself-at-home-in-washington.html?pagewanted=all | url-status=live}} (Mi mundo adorado in the simultaneously published Spanish edition). It focuses on her life up to 1992, with recollections of growing up in housing projects in New York and descriptions of the challenges she faced. It received good reviews, with Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times describing it as "a compelling and powerfully written memoir about identity and coming of age. ... It's an eloquent and affecting testament to the triumph of brains and hard work over circumstance, of a childhood dream realized through extraordinary will and dedication."{{cite news |last=Kakutani |first=Michiko|author-link=Michiko Kakutani |title=The Bronx, the Bench and the Life in Between: 'My Beloved World,' a Memoir by Sonia Sotomayor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/books/my-beloved-world-a-memoir-by-sonia-sotomayor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|access-date=January 24, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 21, 2013|archive-date=January 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124192243/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/books/my-beloved-world-a-memoir-by-sonia-sotomayor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|url-status=live}} She staged a book tour to promote the work,{{cite news |url=http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/20/shuttling-justice-sotomayor-administers-oaths-sells-books/ |title=Shuttling justice: Sotomayor administers oaths, sells books |first=Bill |last=Mears |publisher=CNN |date=January 20, 2013 | access-date=January 26, 2013 | archive-date=January 24, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124024851/http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/20/shuttling-justice-sotomayor-administers-oaths-sells-books/ | url-status=dead}} and it debuted atop the New York Times Best Seller List.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2013-02-03/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html |title=Best Sellers – February 03, 2013 |work=The New York Times | access-date=January 26, 2013 |first=Gregory |last=Cowles | archive-date=January 26, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126052722/http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2013-02-03/hardcover-nonfiction/list.html | url-status=live}}

In 2020, Sotomayor was reportedly targeted by the same gunman, an angry lawyer, who entered U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas's home, shooting her husband and killing her son. The gunman had subsequently killed himself, after which his detailed planning notes regarding Sotomayor were found.{{Cite web |last=Hart |first=Robert |title=Report: Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor Targeted By Gunman Who Killed Federal Judge's Son |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/02/19/report-supreme-court-justice-sotomayor-targeted-by-gunman-who-killed-federal-judges-son/|access-date=February 19, 2021 |website=Forbes |language=en|archive-date=February 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219190500/https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/02/19/report-supreme-court-justice-sotomayor-targeted-by-gunman-who-killed-federal-judges-son/|url-status=live}}

In January 2021, Sotomayor swore in Kamala Harris as Vice President of the United States. It was considered historic as Sotomayor is the first Latina on the Supreme Court and Harris is the first woman, African-American, and Asian-American vice president.{{cite web |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/16/politics/kamala-harris-swearing-in-sonia-sotomayor/index.html |title=Harris to be sworn in as vice president by Justice Sonia Sotomayor|access-date=January 16, 2021 |website=CNN |date=January 16, 2021 |archive-date=January 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117061216/https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/16/politics/kamala-harris-swearing-in-sonia-sotomayor/index.html|url-status=live}}

On August 14, 1976, just after graduating from Princeton, Sotomayor married Kevin Edward Noonan, whom she had dated since high school,{{cite news |url=https://abc7ny.com/archive/6831739/ |title=Judge Sonia Sotomayor bio |publisher=WABC-TV |date=May 27, 2009 | access-date=May 27, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528000356/http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news%2Fpolitics&id=6831739 | archive-date=May 28, 2009 | url-status=live}} in a small chapel at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. She used the married name Sonia Sotomayor de Noonan.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/12/16/law-firm-apologizes-to-yale-student/476c0d94-63b8-44d5-a990-a4dfc446abc7 |title=Law Firm Apologizes to Yale Student |author=Auerbach, Stuart |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=December 16, 1978 | access-date=June 1, 2009 |format=free | archive-date=September 7, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907032229/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/12/16/law-firm-apologizes-to-yale-student/476c0d94-63b8-44d5-a990-a4dfc446abc7/ | url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2009/may/31/at-yale-sotomayor-was-sharp-but-not-outspoken/ |title=At Yale, Sotomayor was sharp but not outspoken |author=Miller, Zeke |work=Yale Daily News |date=May 31, 2009 | access-date=September 19, 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920200254/http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2009/may/31/at-yale-sotomayor-was-sharp-but-not-outspoken/ | archive-date=September 20, 2012 }}{{cite web |url=http://lawyers.justia.com/lawyer/sonia-sotomayor-de-noonan-1136017 |title=Lawyer Sonia Sotomayor De Noonan |date=1998 |publisher=Justia.com | access-date=June 1, 2009 | archive-date=July 13, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713130926/http://lawyers.justia.com/lawyer/sonia-sotomayor-de-noonan-1136017 | url-status=live}} They divorced in 1983, and Noonan would go on to be a biologist and a patent lawyer.

File:Sonia Sotomayor by Gage Skidmore.jpg Memorial Lecture at Arizona State University as the guest of honor]]

Sotomayor has received honorary law degrees from Lehman College (1999), Princeton University (2001), Brooklyn Law School (2001), Pace University School of Law (2003),{{cite web |url=http://www.pace.edu/commencement/commencement-2003/honorary-degree-recipients-4 |title=Commencement 2003: Honorary Degree Recipients |publisher=Pace University |date=June 10, 2004 | access-date=August 4, 2014 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805105314/http://www.pace.edu/commencement/commencement-2003/honorary-degree-recipients-4 | archive-date=August 5, 2012 }} Hofstra University (2006), Northeastern University School of Law (2007),{{cite news |url=http://www.northeastern.edu/news/stories/2009/05/Sotomayor.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530093509/http://www.northeastern.edu/news/stories/2009/05/Sotomayor.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=May 30, 2009 |title=Obama taps Northeastern honorary degree recipient for U.S. Supreme Court |publisher=Northeastern University |date=May 26, 2009 | access-date=May 31, 2009}} Howard University (2010),{{cite news |date=May 8, 2010 |title=Sotomayor urges anxious grads to embrace future |publisher=NBC Washington |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/sotomayor-urges-howard-grads-to-embrace-future/2095790/|url-status=live|access-date=August 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126034635/https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/sotomayor-urges-howard-grads-to-embrace-future/2095790/|archive-date=January 26, 2021}} St. Lawrence University (2010),{{cite news |url=http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100517/NEWS05/100519801/-1/news |title=Grads, Families Celebrate Together |author=Shull, Lori |newspaper=Watertown Daily Times |date=May 17, 2010 | access-date=May 19, 2010 | archive-date=February 23, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120223083441/http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100517/NEWS05/100519801/-1/news | url-status=live}} Paris Nanterre University (2010),{{cite web |url=https://www.parisnanterre.fr/doctorats-honoris-causa-925507.kjsp?RH=FR |title=Doctorats Honoris Causa |access-date=October 14, 2020 |archive-date=October 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201015222000/https://www.parisnanterre.fr/doctorats-honoris-causa-925507.kjsp?RH=FR |url-status=live}} New York University (2012),{{cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/supreme-court-justice-sonia-sotomayor-sings-york-praises-nyu-commencement-article-1.1079292 |title=Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor sings New York's praises at NYU commencement |author=Wills, Kerry |author2=Siemaszko, Corky |newspaper=Daily News |location=New York |date=May 16, 2012 | access-date=May 19, 2012 | archive-date=May 19, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519020910/http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/supreme-court-justice-sonia-sotomayor-sings-york-praises-nyu-commencement-article-1.1079292 | url-status=live}} Yale University (2013),{{cite news |url=http://news.yale.edu/2013/05/20/yale-awards-10-honorary-degrees-2013-commencement |title=Yale awards 10 honorary degrees at 2013 Commencement |publisher=Yale University |date=May 20, 2013 |access-date=May 24, 2013 |archive-date=May 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521202431/http://news.yale.edu/2013/05/20/yale-awards-10-honorary-degrees-2013-commencement |url-status=live}} the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras (2014),{{cite news |title=Distinción a jueza Sonia Sotomayor |url=http://www.elnuevodia.com/distincionajuezasoniasotomayor-1766710.html|access-date=May 7, 2014 |newspaper=El Nuevo Día |language=es|archive-date=May 8, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508201148/http://www.elnuevodia.com/distincionajuezasoniasotomayor-1766710.html|url-status=live}} and an honorary doctorate of human letters from Manhattan University (2019).{{Cite web |title=Bronx Native Sotomayor Presented With Honorary Doctorate |url=https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/05/20/bronx-native-sotomayor-presented-with-honorary-doctorate/ |access-date=April 26, 2023 |website=New York Law Journal |language=en}}

She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2002.{{cite web |url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=sotomayor&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&smode=advanced |title=American Philosophical Society Member History |publisher=American Philosophical Society | access-date=May 30, 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715210125/http://www.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=sotomayor&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&smode=advanced | archive-date=July 15, 2014 }} She was given the Outstanding Latino Professional Award in 2006 by the Latino/a Law Students Association.{{cite web |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lalsa/index_files/2006Gala.htm |title=Second Annual Awards Banquet |publisher=Columbia University | access-date=May 31, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080404023344/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lalsa/index_files/2006Gala.htm |archive-date = April 4, 2008}} In 2008, Esquire magazine included Sotomayor on its list of "The 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century".{{cite news |url=http://www.esquire.com/features/most-influential-21st-century-1008 |title=The 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century |magazine=Esquire |date=October 2008 | access-date=July 16, 2014 | archive-date=August 5, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805132408/http://www.esquire.com/features/most-influential-21st-century-1008 | url-status=live}} In 2013, Sotomayor won the Woodrow Wilson Award at her alma mater Princeton University.{{cite news |title=Sotomayor '76 wins Woodrow Wilson Award, Rawlings GS '70 wins James Madison Medal |first=Jasmine |last=Wang |newspaper=The Daily Princetonian |date=November 4, 2013 |url=http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2013/11/sotomayor-76-wins-woodrow-wilson-award-rawlings-gs-70-wins-james-madison-medal/ | access-date=August 2, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808060339/http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2013/11/sotomayor-76-wins-woodrow-wilson-award-rawlings-gs-70-wins-james-madison-medal/ | archive-date=August 8, 2014 | url-status=dead}}

In June 2010, the Bronxdale Houses development, where Sotomayor grew up, was renamed after her. The Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses and Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community Center comprise 28 buildings with some 3,500 residents. While many New York housing developments are named after well-known people, this was only the second to be named after a former resident.{{cite press release |url=http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2010a%2Fpr253-10.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1 |title=Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Housing Authority Chairman Rhea Rename Bronx Development in Honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor |publisher=Mayor of New York City |date=June 4, 2010 | access-date=December 4, 2010 | archive-date=January 30, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110130212851/http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2010a%2Fpr253-10.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1 | url-status=live}} In 2011, the Sonia M. Sotomayor Learning Academies, a public high school complex in Los Angeles, was named after her.{{cite web |url=http://www.laschools.org/project-status/one-project?project_id=805892 |title=Project Details |publisher=Los Angeles Unified School District | access-date=April 28, 2014 | archive-date=April 27, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427163403/http://www.laschools.org/project-status/one-project?project_id=805892 | url-status=live}}

In 2013, a painting featuring her, Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan was unveiled at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/supreme-court-women-portrait_n_4171983.html?1383006537&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008 |title=The Women Of The Supreme Court Now Have The Badass Portrait They Deserve |work=The Huffington Post |date=October 28, 2013 |access-date=November 2, 2015 |archive-date=November 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104044645/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/supreme-court-women-portrait_n_4171983.html?1383006537&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008 |url-status=live}}

In May 2015, she received the Katharine Hepburn medal from Bryn Mawr College.{{cite web |url=http://news.brynmawr.edu/2015/04/23/supreme-court-justice-sonia-sotomayor-honored-with-2015-hepburn-medal/ |title=Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Honored With 2015 Hepburn Medal |publisher=Bryn Mawr College |date=April 23, 2015 | access-date=May 10, 2015 | archive-date=May 2, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502023552/http://news.brynmawr.edu/2015/04/23/supreme-court-justice-sonia-sotomayor-honored-with-2015-hepburn-medal/ | url-status=live}}

In 2019, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/sonia-sotomayor-2/ |title=Sotomayor, Sonia |website=National Women's Hall of Fame|access-date=June 21, 2020|archive-date=August 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807065801/https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/sonia-sotomayor-2/|url-status=live}}

In 2024, Sotomayor received the Radcliffe Medal from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, awarded annually to "an individual who has had a transformative impact on society."{{Cite news |last1=Healy |first1=S. Mac |last2=Sundar |first2=Saketh |date=March 23, 2024 |title=Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Named 2024 Radcliffe Medal Recipient |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/3/23/radcliffe-medal-sonia-sotomayor/ |access-date=March 23, 2024 |work=The Harvard Crimson}}{{cite web | last=Krupnick | first=Max J. | title=Justice Sonia Sotomayor at Harvard Radcliffe Day | website=Harvard Magazine | date=24 May 2024 | url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/05/harvard-commencement-2024-radcliffe-day-sonia-sotomayor | access-date=6 June 2024}}{{cite web | title=Radcliffe Medallists | website=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University | url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/about-the-institute/radcliffe-medalists | access-date=6 June 2024}}

{{clear}}

• Sotomayor, Sonia (2022) Just Help! How to Build a Better World. New York: Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780593206263.
• Sotomayor, Sonia (2019). Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You. New York: Penguin Random House. ISBN 9780525514121.
• Sotomayor, Sonia (2019). The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor. New York: Penguin Random House. ISBN 9781524771171.
• {{Cite book |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |title=Turning Pages: My Life Story |publisher=Philomel Books |year=2018 |isbn=9780525514084 |location=New York|ref=none}}
• {{Cite book |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |title=My Beloved World|title-link=My Beloved World |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2013 |isbn=9780307594884 |location=New York|ref=none}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |date=2017 |title=A Tribute to Justice Scalia |url=https://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/c.1609.JusticeSotomayor.1611_xzznm2gs.pdf |journal=Yale Law Journal |volume=126 |pages=1609–1611|ref=none}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |date=1999 |title=La Independencia Judicial: Que Necesitamos Para Conservarla |journal=Revista Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico |volume=60 |pages=59|ref=none}}{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/find/sotomayor.php |title=Sonia Sotomayor |publisher=Library of Congress |date=May 29, 2009 | access-date=June 2, 2009 | archive-date=May 31, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531153541/http://www.loc.gov/law/find/sotomayor.php | url-status=live}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Sotomayor |first1=Sonia |last2=Gordon |first2=Nicole A. |date=1996 |title=Returning Majesty to the Law and Politics: A Modern Approach |url=http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SupremeCourt/Sotomayor/upload/Question-12-a-No-5-Returning-Majesty-to-the-Law-and-Politi.pdf |journal=Suffolk University Law Review |volume=30 |pages=35–51|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619094814/http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SupremeCourt/Sotomayor/upload/Question-12-a-No-5-Returning-Majesty-to-the-Law-and-Politi.pdf|archive-date=June 19, 2009|ref=none}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |date=1979 |title=Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed Rights |url=https://www.yalelawjournal.org/files/Sotomayor_ek88pn2o.pdf |journal=Yale Law Journal |volume=88 |issue=4 |pages=825–849 |doi=10.2307/795781 |jstor=795781|ref=none}}

• {{Cite book |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |title=The International Judge: An Introduction to the Men and Women who Decide the World's Cases |publisher=University Press of New England |year=2007 |isbn=9781584656661|editor-last=Terris|editor-first=Daniel |location=Lebanon |chapter=Foreword|editor2-last=Romano|editor2-first=Cesare P. R.|editor3-last=Swigart|editor3-first=Leigh|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qViXyy_58LsC&pg=PR9|ref=none}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |date=2014 |title=A Conversation with Justice Sotomayor |url=https://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/1.SotomayorGreenhouse_FINAL_t1xdbxfi.pdf |journal=Yale Law Journal Forum |volume=123 |pages=375–391|ref=none}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |date=2004 |title=A Latina Judge's Voice (Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture) |url=https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1118136/files/fulltext.pdf |journal=Berkeley la Raza Law Journal |volume=13 |pages=87–93|ref=none}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Sotomayor |first=Sonia |date=2004 |title=Tribute to John Sexton |url=http://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/ecm_pro_064647.pdf |journal=NYU Annual Survey of American Law |volume=60 |pages=23–26|ref=none}}

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{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |first=Marcia |last=Coyle |title=The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4516-2751-0 | url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/robertscourtstru0000coyl|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |first=Mark |last=Tushnet | author-link=Mark Tushnet |title=In the Balance: Law and Politics on the Roberts Court |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-393-07344-7|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |first=Jeffrey |last=Toobin | author-link=Jeffrey Toobin |title=The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court |publisher=Doubleday Press |location=New York |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-385-52720-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/oathobamawhiteho00toob_0|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |first1=Laurence |last1=Tribe | author-link=Laurence Tribe |first2=Joshua |last2=Matz |title=Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |location=New York |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-8050-9909-6|ref=none}}

• {{cite book |first=Joan |last=Biskupic |author-link=Joan Biskupic |title=Breaking in: the rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the politics of justice |publisher=Sarah Crichton Books |year=2014 |isbn=9780374298746}}

{{Sister project links|d=Q11107|wikt=no |commons=Sonia Sotomayor |b=no |n=Sonia Sotomayor |q=Sonia Sotomayor |s=author:Sonia Maria Sotomayor |v=no|c=Category:Sonia Sotomayor}}

• {{FJC Bio|2243|nid=1388091|name=Sonia Sotomayor}}
• {{Ballotpedia|Sonia_Sotomayor|Sonia Sotomayor}}
• [https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/photogallery/sotomayor-bio Sonia Sotomayor Photo Gallery] from The White House website
• {{C-SPAN|1018476}}
• {{Cite web |url=http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SupremeCourt/Sotomayor/SoniaSotomayor-Questionnaire.cfm |title=Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayor – Questionnaire |access-date=May 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611162632/http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/SupremeCourt/Sotomayor/SoniaSotomayor-Questionnaire.cfm |archive-date=June 11, 2009 |url-status=dead}} materials given to Senate Judiciary Committee
• [http://appserv.pace.edu/execute/page.cfm?doc_id=7771 CV] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060920103112/https://appserv.pace.edu/execute/page.cfm?doc_id=7771 |date=September 20, 2006 }} from Pace University 2003 Commencement
• {{Cite web |url=http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/judge-sotomayors-appellate-opinions-in-civil-cases/ |title=SCOTUSBlog: Judge Sotomayor's Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases |access-date=May 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606001619/http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/judge-sotomayors-appellate-opinions-in-civil-cases/ |archive-date=June 6, 2009 |date=May 15, 2009}}
• [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CHRG-SOTOMAYOR/pdf/GPO-CHRG-SOTOMAYOR.pdf Supreme Court Associate Justice Nomination Hearings on Sonia Maria Sotomayor in July 2009] United States Government Publishing Office
• [https://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/collections/show/42 Sonya Sotomayor Digital Collection] at the [https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/ Bill Clinton Library]
• [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_525-6t0gt5gd56 The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer : WETA] 2009-08-06, National Records and Archives Administration, American Archive of Public Broadcasting

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