Sonia Sotomayor Quotes About Judging

Quotes about: Judging

• 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

  Differences, Judging, Making A Difference

  "A Latina Judge’s Voice". Sonia Sotomayor’s Speech at the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal’s Symposium, www.law.berkeley.edu. October 26, 2001.

• 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

  Differences, Judging, Prejudice

  "A Latina Judge's Voice". Address to the 'Raising the Bar' symposium at the UC Berkeley School of Law, www.berkeley.edu. 2001.

• I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experiences.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Wise, Believe, Opportunity

  "Sotomayor hearings: The complete transcript, Part 1". latimesblogs.latimes.com. July 14, 2009.

• I want to state upfront, unequivocally and without doubt: I do not believe that any racial, ethnic or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge, regardless of their background or life experiences.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Wise, Wisdom, Believe

• My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Differences, Judging, Heritage

  "White House: Sotomayor Says She Chose Words Poorly in 2001 Remarks". www.foxnews.com. May 29, 2009.

• I'm a common law judge. I believe in deciding every case on its facts, not on a legal philosophy. And I believe in deciding each case in the most limited way possible, because common law judges have a firm belief that the best development of the law is the one that lets society show you the next step, and that next step is in the new facts that each case presents.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Philosophy, Believe, Law

  Source: progressive.org

• As a Catholic, you can have two views on capital punishment. You can think, let Caesar do what Caesar needs to do, and the law says you can impose capital punishment, so you impose it. You can [also] be a Catholic who says we can't kill, we can't kill babies and we can't kill adults. If you let a decision be driven by your personal views, then you are not doing what a judge needs to do, which is enforce the laws of the society that you are in. But you can control your own behavior, and that is the choice that the church and God gives us - what kind of people are we going to be.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Baby, Thinking, Views

  Source: progressive.org

• 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

  Jobs, Heart, Law

  "Sotomayor says life experience won't bias her rulings" by Craig Gilbert, archive.jsonline.com. July 14, 2009.

• That's why we have appellate judges that are more than one judge because each of us, from our life experiences, will more easily see different perspectives argued by parties. But judges do consider all of the arguments of litigants. I have. Most of my opinions, if not all of them, explain to parties by the law requires what it does.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Party, Law, Perspective

  Source: www.motherjones.com

• I don't stand by the understanding of that statement that I will ignore other facts or other experiences because I haven't had them. I do believe that life experiences are important to the process of judging - They help you to understand and listen - but that the law requires a result. And it would command you to the facts that are relevant to the disposition of the case.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Believe, Law, Judging

  "Sotomayor hearings: The complete transcript, Part 1". latimesblogs.latimes.com. July 14, 2009.

• It is very important when you judge to recognize that you have to stay impartial. That's what the nature of my job is. I have to unhook myself from my emotional responses and try to stay within my unemotional, objective persona.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Jobs, Emotional, Judging

  "CNN Newsroom" with Fredricka Whitfield, www.cnn.com. May 30, 2009.

• Reaching a conclusion has to start with what the parties are arguing, but examining in all situations carefully the facts as they prove them or not prove them, the record as they create it, and then making a decision that is limited to what the law says on the facts before the judge.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Party, Law, Judging

• When I first became a judge on the district court, I had one lawyer who came to argue before me, and he was looking off to the side as he was talking. I started asking him questions, and all of a sudden he whipped around and looked at me intently. I could see in his eyes that he had finally figured out, "This is no dummy, I'd better pay attention." It is satisfying to see that.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Eye, Judging, Attention

  Source: www.oprah.com

• All judges have cases that touch our passions deeply, but we all struggle constantly with remaining impartial.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Struggle, Passion, Judging

  "The International Judge: An Introduction to the Men and Women Who Decide the World’s Cases". Book by Daniel Terris and Cesare P.R. Romano, November 30, 2007.

• The worst thing you want is a willy-nilly judge who is swayed by the political whims of the era or the time. What you want is a judge who is thinking about what he or she is doing and is thinking about it in a principled way.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Thinking, Judging, Political

• People in some situations act worse than animals. You can't be a judge if you try to be a robot. Because then you're not going to be able to look at both sides, and hear both sides. At the same time, if you're being ruled by emotion, then you're not being fair and impartial.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Animal, People, Judging

• I do think there is a value in the services of judges for long periods of time.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Thinking, Long, Judging

  Senate Committee On The Judiciary Holds A Hearing On The Nomination Of Judge Sonia Sotomayor To Be An Associate Justice Of The U.S. Supreme Court, latimesblogs.latimes.com. July 14, 2009.

• I accept the proposition that...“to judge is an exercise of power” and because...“there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives – no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging,” I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Exercise, Color, People

  "A Latina Judge’s Voice". Sonia Sotomayor’s Speech at the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal’s Symposium, www.law.berkeley.edu. October 26, 2001.

• When I talk to kids, I often tell them, "I'm going to disappoint you someday. I won't be worth my salt as a judge if I don't render at least one decision that makes you unhappy. Because if I'm following the law - and I don't write them - there has to be some decision you won't like. Please don't judge any person by one act. Take from them the good and don't concentrate on the little things that make you unhappy." That's my approach to family and friends, too.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Kids, Writing, Judging

• Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Judging, Facts, Latina Women

  "A Latina Judge's Voice" by Sonia Sotomayor, www.nytimes.com. 2001.

• The task of a judge is not to make the law - it is to apply the law.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Law, Judging, Tasks

  Sonia Sotomayor's Opening Statement on the first day of her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, www.npr.org. July 13, 2009.

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