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I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions.

Sonia Sotomayor

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Sonia Sotomayor
Age: 70
Born: 1954
Born: June 25
Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States
Judge
Lawyer
Politician
University Teacher
The Bronx
New York City
Sonia Maria Sotomayor
Justice Sotomayor
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Rican
Succeed
Score
Bronx
Baby
Test
Puerto
Wasn
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Princeton
Perfect
Tests
Comparable
Born
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Action
Raised
Yale
Able
South
Affirmative

More quotes by Sonia Sotomayor

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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.
Sonia Sotomayor
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It is our responsibility to explain to the public how an often unpredictable system of justice is one that serves a productive, civilized, but always evolving, society.
Sonia Sotomayor
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I wouldn't approach the issue of judging in the way the president does. Judges can't rely on what's in their heart. It's not the heart that compels conclusions in cases. It's the law.
Sonia Sotomayor
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I came to accept during my freshman year that many of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding were simply limits of class and cultural background, not lack of aptitude or application as I'd feared.
Sonia Sotomayor
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You make your life choices understanding that you might and do have to work harder to prove yourself.
Sonia Sotomayor
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The truth is that since childhood I had cultivated an existential independence. It came from perceiving the adults around me as unreliable, and without it I felt I wouldn't have survived. I cared deeply for everyone in my family, but in the end I depended on myself.
Sonia Sotomayor
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Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences...our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.
Sonia Sotomayor
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I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences, but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.
Sonia Sotomayor
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I didn't know I had a sense of limitation until I got into the greater world.
Sonia Sotomayor
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Until we reach equality in education, we can't reach equality in the larger society.
Sonia Sotomayor
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If your child marches to a different beat, a different drummer, you might just have to go along with that music. Help them achieve what’s important to them.
Sonia Sotomayor
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A role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration his or her very existence is confirmation of possibilities one may have every reason to doubt, saying, Yes, someone like me can do this.
Sonia Sotomayor
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Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the 'supreme law of the land,' in most instances they're not even law.
Sonia Sotomayor
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Much of the uncertainty of law is not an unfortunate accident: it is of immense social value.
Sonia Sotomayor
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I hope in my book [My Beloved World], that the sense that I really feel connected comes through.
Sonia Sotomayor
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The schools that suffer are the schools in, in poor neighborhoods. They are the neighborhoods with the greatest need, with the parents struggling to work and to make ends meet. They don't have enough resources to give, they don't have enough resources to pay more, and these are the neighborhoods that go first.
Sonia Sotomayor
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I am a very spiritual person. Maybe not traditionally religious in terms of Sunday Mass every week, that sort of thing.
Sonia Sotomayor
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I stand on the shoulders of countless people, yet there is one extraordinary person who is my life aspiration. That person is my mother, Celina Sotomayor.
Sonia Sotomayor
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You can only stay connected if you feel connected.
Sonia Sotomayor
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The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination.
Sonia Sotomayor