(Heinz Kluetmeier/Getty Images)
By Anthony Payero
(THE BRONX, N.Y.) The world is celebrating International Women's Day on March 8 and here at The Bronx Beacon, we're focusing on current Supreme Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She became the first Latina to serve in the Supreme Court. She made history earlier this year by swearing in Vice President Kamala Harris — the first woman to hold that position — on Inauguration Day.
Sotomayor is just the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court, following the footsteps of the late Sandra Day O'Connor and fellow New Yorker, the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Sotomayor serves to inspire future women to reach the accolades that she has in her career.
"I realized that people had an unreal image of me, that somehow I was a god on Mount Olympus," she told TIME. "I decided that if I were going to make use of my role as a Supreme Court justice, it would be to inspire people to realize that first, I was just like them, and second, if I could do it, so could they."
As a way to inspire Bronxites to see that anything is possible, here are seven facts that show detail Sotomayor's upbringing and some of her notable accomplishments.
1.) Sotomayor was born in The Bronx
Sotomayor was born June 25, 1954, in the Bronx, where her parents settled after moving to the United States from Puerto Rico. She was raised in the Bronxdale Houses and later moved to the Co-Op City section of the borough with her mother and her brother Juan.
According to her book, "My Beloved World," her Spanish-speaking father found work at a local factory and died at the age of 42 after struggling with alcohol abuse when Sotomayor was just nine-years-old. Her mother worked as a nurse to support her family.
Sotomayor gained inspiration to become a judge after watching "Perry Mason" on TV growing up, thinking "the judge was the most important player in that room."
According to ABC 7 NY, the Bronxdale Houses were renamed in honor of Sotomayor in 2010, and are now known as the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses and Community Center.
2.) She completed her studies at Princeton and Yale Law School
The Supreme Court judge earned scholarships to the Ivy League schools for both her undergraduate studies and her juris doctorate. She highlighted her feelings of being one of the few Latinas attending these schools at the time.
"Oh gosh, I was filled with fear,’’ she told Savannah Guthrie in 2013. “When you come from a background like mine, where you're entering worlds that are so different than your own, you have to be afraid.’’
She founded the Latino Student Organization at Princeton, where she graduated summa cum laude.
3.) She became a judge in 1991 after earning a nomination from President George H.W. Bush
Sotomayor worked as an assistant district attorney in 1979 and moved on in 1984 to become a private practice lawyer. She found success in that field as well, as she made partner at her firm in 1988.
President Bush nominated Sotomayor for U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Nov. 1991 after learning of her work from Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She oversaw 450 cases and President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in June 1997. She oversaw 3,000 cases and also found time to teach at New York University and Columbia Law School in 1998 and 1999, respectively.
4.) President Barack Obama nominated her for SCOTUS in 2009
Justice David H. Souter announced plans to retire which opened the doors for President Obama to nominate Sotomayor to the Supreme Court on May 26, 2009. Despite some naysayers, including the National Rifle Association, she was confirmed in a Senate hearing 68-31.
She was sworn into the Supreme Court on August 8 that same year.
5.) She never had children
Sotomayor married Kevin Noonan, her high school sweetheart, once she graduated from Princeton. The two decided to split after seven years in 1983 due to growing in "different directions," something Sotomayor detailed in her interview on "Oprah's Next Chapter."
“I was completely consumed with work when I started as a D.A. in Manhattan, and I really wasn’t paying attention to him,” she said, adding that he told her, "One day I woke up realizing that no matter how hard I worked, I might not be as successful as you. And that led me to think, does she really need me?’” While she's been happily single since, she told Savannah Guthrie that she feels an "occasional tug of regret" about not having kids.
“I knew that I wanted to be an independent woman with my own career and (be) successful in whatever I chose to do,’’ she said on TODAY. “Could I have that and have had children? Many women do. Can you have it all every minute of the day? No.”
6.) She "saved" baseball
While serving as federal district court judge in New York, Sotomayor brought an end to the 1994-1995 Major League Baseball strike by ruling on a players' salary cap shortly before opening day, reinstating the previous labor agreements' terms.
"Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball," Obama said at her 2009 nomination announcement. Sotomayor is a known Yankee fan, as are most Bronxites, and was even asked to throw the first pitch at Yankee Stadium in 2009.
7.) She is a published author
As previously mentioned, she wrote "My Beloved World" and also has three children's books under her belt. "The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor," "Turning Pages: My Life Story" and "Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You" were all published in English and Spanish, again connecting the judge to her Latina roots. She touched on her experience of living with Type 1 diabetes in "Just Ask!," saying "I want every child to understand that whatever condition they bear in life, they are special in a good way."