{"id":10602,"date":"2010-06-25T15:56:39","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=10602"},"modified":"2010-06-25T16:05:57","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T21:05:57","slug":"super-mujer-justice-sonia-sotomayor-as-a-role-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/06\/super-mujer-justice-sonia-sotomayor-as-a-role-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Mujer: Justice Sonia Sotomayor as a Role Model"},"content":{"rendered":"

\ufeff\"\"<\/a>When President Barack Obama nominated Justice Sonia Sotomayor a year ago, the debate surrounding her confirmation included a wide array of scrutiny.\u00a0 Some of the items of discussion were more relevant<\/a> and more substantive<\/a> than others<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the US Supreme Court\u2019s first Latina, third female, and first Type 1 Diabetic to serve on the bench, the greatest amount of focus seemed to fall upon her non-legal, personal history.\u00a0 Particularly, as this blog has noted, the confirmation hearings concentrated<\/a> on whether that personal history and her self-identified \u201cWise Latina\u201d-ness would enhance or detract from her ability to effectively and fairly \u201csay what the law is<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly a year after her confirmation, the evaluation<\/a> of the Wise Latina\u2019s first session as a Justice has already begun.\u00a0 But what if, a year later, we approached the discussion concerning her role on the Court from another direction?\u00a0 Instead of a debate centered only on Justice Sotomayor\u2019s specific job performance, the discussion might also include the value that comes from choosing a role model that can inspire the underrepresented within the legal community.<\/p>\n

A 2003 ABA study<\/a> found that women comprise only 29.7% of all lawyers, and their presence in the judiciary is even more inequitable: of US Circuit Court judges\u201420.1%, of US District Court judges\u201419.2%, and on state courts (of last resort)\u201426.3%. A similar 2000 ABA study<\/a> shows that among judges, magistrates, and other judicial employees, the make-up of minorities is as follows: Hispanics\u20144.5%, Blacks\u20148.8%, Asians\u20141.6%.\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, these statistics are unbalanced compared to the figures<\/a> on US population by race and ethnicity, and they are bleak compared to the statistics<\/a> on incarceration.<\/p>\n

Assuming our society values a legal community that more closely resembles the greater population, where does that more representative panoply begin?\u00a0 Every legal professional has a personal narrative that includes his or her reason for choosing such a career.\u00a0 For a great majority of us, it starts with example.\u00a0 It is extremely powerful to actually witness that someone like you\u2014someone who may share similar characteristics or personal history\u2014can succeed professionally.<\/p>\n

As a Latina entering my second year of law school, I find myself inspired by Justice Sotomayor\u2019s career.\u00a0 Raised by a single parent, I grew up below the poverty-line in Southern California among a rapidly growing Hispanic community.\u00a0 Something felt familiar as I became acquainted with Justice Sotomayor\u2019s story.\u00a0 According to her official biography<\/a>, she is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents, grew up in a South Bronx housing project, and after her father\u2019s death when she was eight, she was raised by her mother, a nurse.<\/p>\n

The confidence I have that I can complete law school and have a successful legal career is not limited to one particular person or opportunity.\u00a0 But I can testify to the profound inspiration that comes from seeing a well-qualified, confident woman of color, who came from a somewhat similar set of obstacles, hold a position of prestige in the very same professional community I seek to join.<\/p>\n

On June 28, Judge Elena Kagan\u2019s confirmation begins.\u00a0 Naturally, I am hoping that her hearing will include a substantive and thorough discussion of her professional credentials.\u00a0 I am also hoping, though, that part of the discourse includes the value of having more female and minority role models in positions of power in the legal community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ufeffWhen President Barack Obama nominated Justice Sonia Sotomayor a year ago, the debate surrounding her confirmation included a wide array of scrutiny.\u00a0 Some of the items of discussion were more relevant and more substantive than others. As the US Supreme Court\u2019s first Latina, third female, and first Type 1 Diabetic to serve on the bench, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,44,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-federal-law-legal-system","category-political-processes-rhetoric","category-us-supreme-court","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}