As many have recently learned, Sonia Sotomayor was raised in a Bronx housing project, the child of a tool-and-die factory worker. Her father died when she was nine, leaving her mother as the sole breadwinner. Judge Sotomayor excelled in school, graduating high school as the valedictorian of her class. She then attended Princeton University, where she graduated summa cum laude, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of the Pyne Prize, the university's highest undergraduate award. A Princeton classmate noted that "she was very analytical, even back then. It was clear to people who knew her that if she wasn’t going to be a lawyer, she was going to be in public life somehow.” After Princeton, Sotomayor attended Yale Law School, where she earned a spot on the prestigious law review. At Yale, Judge Sotomayor was known for her fair and even-handed treatment of legal arguments. Shortly thereafter, Judge Sotomayer entered public service, working first as a prosecutor in the New York City District Attorney's Office, and later, as a District Court Judge nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush. President Clinton elevated her to her current position on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Civil rights advocates may find Sotomayor’s dedication to the rule of law and strong experience encouraging. For example, in Gant v. Wallingford Board of Education, Judge Sotomayor found race discrimination in the instance of a school demotion of a black child from first grade to kindergarten. In the instance of Gant, a black family moved to Wallingford, Connecticut during the winter of 1993, enrolling their six-year-son old Ray Jr.’s in the first grade of Cook Hill Elementary School, a public school in Wallingford. Ray Jr. was the only African-American student in the class. The young child "was subjected to unprovoked and repeated racial slurs, continued taunting and unmitigated harassment by fellow students, as well as by certain parents of students enrolled in Cook Hill...." School officials knew of these acts but took no action to stop them. Within three days of little Ray Jr.'s arrival, his first grade teacher, Grace Candido, informed Elisa Gant "that her son could not do the work necessary for successful completion of first grade and, therefore, should immediately be transferred back into kindergarten..." Without fully explaining the retention policy of the Wallingford Public Schools - which required consultation with and approval by the Ray Jr.’s parents, and without the benefit of any testing whatsoever and without explaining any of the other academic alternatives available to the Gants, the principal of Cook Hill,. Patricia Cronin, authorized the child’s transfer. In her opinion, Judge Sotomayor acknowledged the inequity of a situation where struggling white children received extra assistance, while the “lone black child” was immediately transferred to a lower grade.
We can be hopeful that a nominee with such an impressive judicial record will pass confirmation muster. Confirmation hearings are expected to begin in late June or early July, and are slated to end before Congress goes into recess on August 7th.
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