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94-516: Sonia Maria Sotomayor ( / ˈ s oʊ n j ə ˌ s oʊ t oʊ m aɪ ˈ j ɔːr / , Spanish: [ˈsonja sotomaˈʝoɾ] ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States . She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since August 8, 2009. She is the third woman,

188-584: A seminar on Puerto Rican history and politics. Sotomayor joined the governance board of Princeton's Third World Center and served on the university's student–faculty Discipline Committee, which issued rulings on student infractions. She also ran an after-school program for local children, and volunteered as an interpreter for Latino patients at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital . Academically, Sotomayor stumbled her first year at Princeton, but later received almost all A-grades in her final two years of college. Sotomayor wrote her senior thesis on Luis Muñoz Marín ,

282-456: A "kick in the teeth" and one that would bother her for years. In her third year, she filed a formal complaint against the established Washington, D.C., law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge for suggesting during a recruiting dinner that she was at Yale only via affirmative action. Sotomayor refused to be interviewed by the firm further and filed her complaint with a faculty–student tribunal, which ruled in her favor. Her action triggered

376-473: A 1986 appearance on Good Morning America that profiled women ten years after college graduation, she said that the bulk of law work was drudgery, and that while she was content with her life, she had expected greater things of herself coming out of college. In 1988 she became a partner at the firm; she was paid well but not extravagantly. She left in 1992 when she became a judge. In addition to her law firm work, Sotomayor found visible public service roles. She

470-585: A Latina: "That series of questions, I think, were symbolic of a set of expectations that some people had [that] I must be liberal. It is stereotyping, and stereotyping is perhaps the most insidious of all problems in our society today." Over her ten years on the Second Circuit, Sotomayor heard appeals in more than 3,000 cases and wrote about 380 opinions when she was in the majority. The Supreme Court reviewed five of those, reversing three and affirming two—not high numbers for an appellate judge of that many years and

564-490: A Republican was in the White House. Moynihan also wanted to fulfill a public promise he had made to get a Hispanic judge appointed for New York. When Moynihan's staff recommended her to him, they said "Have we got a judge for you!" Moynihan identified with her socio-economic and academic background and became convinced she would become the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. D'Amato became an enthusiastic backer of Sotomayor, who

658-479: A Supreme Court nomination but she was eventually confirmed in 1998. On the Second Circuit, Sotomayor heard appeals in more than 3,000 cases and wrote about 380 opinions. Sotomayor has taught at the New York University School of Law and Columbia Law School . In May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice David Souter . Her nomination

752-495: A campus-wide debate, and news of the firm's subsequent December 1978 apology made The Washington Post . In 1979, Sotomayor was awarded a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. She was admitted to the New York Bar the following year. On the recommendation of Cabranes, Sotomayor was hired out of law school as an assistant district attorney under New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau starting in 1979. She said at

846-413: A case and tended to feature leaden, ungainly prose. Some legal experts have said that Sotomayor's attention to detail and re-examination of the facts of a case came close to overstepping the traditional role of appellate judges. Across some 150 cases involving business and civil law, Sotomayor's rulings were generally unpredictable and not consistently pro-business or anti-business. Sotomayor's influence in

940-471: A female Hispanic nominee. The prior month, Leahy had triggered a procedural delay in the confirmation of fellow Second Circuit nominee Chester J. Straub —who, although advanced by Clinton and supported by Senator Moynihan, was considered much more acceptable by Republicans—in an unsuccessful effort to force earlier consideration of the Sotomayor confirmation. During 1998, several Hispanic organizations organized

1034-460: A fleeing culprit while riding on a motorcycle. She said at the time that Pavia & Harcourt's efforts were run "much like a drug operation", and the successful rounding up of thousands of counterfeit accessories in 1986 was celebrated by "Fendi Crush", a destruction-by-garbage-truck event at Tavern on the Green . At other times, she dealt with dry legal issues such as grain export contract disputes. In

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1128-458: A former dean of admissions at Yale has said that given her record at Princeton, it probably had little effect. At Yale she fit in well although she found there were few Latino students. She was known as a hard worker but she was not considered among the star students in her class. Yale General Counsel and professor José A. Cabranes acted as an early mentor to her to successfully transition and work within "the system". Sotomayor became an editor of

1222-436: A group for Latin, Asian, and Native American students, and continued to advocate for the hiring of more Hispanic faculty. Following her second year, she gained a job as a summer associate with the prominent New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison . By her own later evaluation, her performance there was lacking. She did not receive an offer for a full-time position, an experience that she later described as

1316-664: A harsh boss, they were reasonably compensated at $ 50 a month. While many of the functions of the switchboard and operator have been automated, telephone operators still play a role in some contexts, such as in emergency services or customer support centers. Thus according to a 1995 study by Muller et al., the operators who provide directory assistance, "serve as experts in a variety of domains of relevance to their customers' lives, helping them to navigate through government agencies, complex business hierarchies, partially remembered geographies, and dynamic changes in their customers' worlds." The most famous group of American operators were in

1410-402: A hotel to coordinating emergency responses, dispatching, and overhead paging in hospitals. Operators employed in healthcare settings may have other duties, such as data entry , greeting patients and visitors, taking messages, triaging, or performing after-hours answering service . Experienced, well-trained operators generally command higher salaries. In January 1878 George Willard Croy became

1504-458: A local retail store and a hospital. Sotomayor has said that she was first inspired by the strong-willed children's book detective character Nancy Drew , but, after her diabetes diagnosis led her doctors to suggest a different career path, she was inspired to pursue a legal career and become a judge by watching the Perry Mason television series. She reflected in 1998: "I was going to college and I

1598-515: A petition drive in New York State, generating hundreds of signatures from New Yorkers to try to convince New York Republican senator Al D'Amato to push the Senate leadership to bring Sotomayor's nomination to a vote. D'Amato, a backer of Sotomayor to begin with and additionally concerned about being up for re-election that year, helped move Republican leadership. Her nomination had been pending for over

1692-664: A physician and university professor in the Syracuse, New York , area. Sotomayor was raised a Catholic and grew up in Puerto Rican communities in the South Bronx and East Bronx ; she calls herself a " Nuyorican ". The family lived in a South Bronx tenement before moving in 1957 to the well-maintained, racially and ethnically mixed, working-class Bronxdale Houses housing project in Soundview (which has over time been thought as part of both

1786-428: A preliminary injunction against Major League Baseball , preventing it from unilaterally implementing a new collective bargaining agreement and using replacement players . Her ruling ended the 1994 baseball strike after 232 days, the day before the new season was scheduled to begin. The Second Circuit upheld Sotomayor's decision and denied the owners' request to stay the ruling. The decision raised her profile, won her

1880-468: A rural area on Puerto Rico's southwest coast. The two left Puerto Rico separately, met, and married during World War II after Celina served in the Women's Army Corps . Juan Sotomayor had a third-grade education, did not speak English, and worked as a tool and die worker ; Celina Báez worked as a telephone operator and then a practical nurse . Sonia's younger brother, Juan Sotomayor (born c. 1957), later became

1974-465: A shared party line . Callers spoke to an operator at a central office who then connected a cord to the proper circuit in order to complete the call. Being in complete control of the call, the operator was in a position to listen to private conversations. Automatic, or dial, systems were developed in the 1920s to reduce labor costs as usage increased, and to ensure privacy to the customer. As phone systems became more sophisticated, less direct intervention by

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2068-451: A student activist, Sotomayor focused on faculty hiring and curriculum, since Princeton did not have a single full-time Latino professor nor any class on Latin American studies . A meeting with university president William G. Bowen in her sophomore year saw no results, with Sotomayor telling a New York Times reporter at the time that "Princeton is following a policy of benign neutrality and

2162-400: A switch associated that let the operator participate in the call or ring the circuit for an incoming call. Each jack had a light above it that lit when the customer's telephone receiver was lifted (the earliest systems required the customer to hand-crank a magneto to alert the central office and, later, to "ring off" the completed call). Lines from the central office were usually arranged along

2256-572: A typical percentage of reversals. Sotomayor's circuit court rulings led to her being considered a political centrist by the ABA Journal and other sources and organizations. Several lawyers, legal experts, and news organizations identified her as someone with liberal inclinations. The Second Circuit's caseload typically skewed more toward business and securities law rather than hot-button social or constitutional issues. Sotomayor tended to write narrow, practiced rulings that relied on close application of

2350-489: A while in retaliation for an unrelated block Democrats had put on another nominee. D'Amato objected strongly; some weeks later, the block was dropped, and Sotomayor was confirmed by unanimous consent of the full United States Senate on August 11, 1992, and received her commission the next day. Sotomayor became the youngest judge in the Southern District and the first Hispanic federal judge in New York State. She became

2444-519: A while, you forget there are decent, law-abiding people in life." Sotomayor and Noonan divorced amicably in 1983; they did not have children. She has said that the pressures of her working life were a contributing factor, but not the major factor, in the breakup. From 1983 to 1986, Sotomayor had an informal solo practice, dubbed Sotomayor & Associates, located in her Brooklyn apartment. She performed legal consulting work, often for friends or family members. In 1984, she entered private practice, joining

2538-509: A year when Majority Leader Trent Lott scheduled the vote. With complete Democratic support, and support from 25 Republican senators including Judiciary chair Orrin Hatch , Sotomayor was confirmed on October 2, 1998, by a 67–29 vote. She received her commission on October 7. The confirmation experience left Sotomayor somewhat angry; she said shortly afterwards that during the hearings, Republicans had assumed her political beliefs based on her being

2632-605: Is known for her impassioned dissents on issues of race and ethnic identity, including in Schuette v. BAMN , Utah v. Strieff , and Trump v. Hawaii . Sotomayor was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx . Her father was Juan Sotomayor (c. 1921–1964), from the area of Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico , and her mother was Celina Báez (1927–2021), an orphan from Santa Rosa in Lajas ,

2726-772: Is not making substantive efforts to change." She also wrote opinion pieces for the Daily Princetonian addressing the same issues. Acción Puertorriqueña filed a formal letter of complaint in April 1974 with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare , saying the school discriminated in its hiring and admission practices. The university began to hire Latino faculty, and Sotomayor established an ongoing dialogue with Bowen. Sotomayor also successfully persuaded professor Peter Winn , who specialized in Latin American history , to create

2820-652: The Wall Street Journal in its efforts to obtain and publish a photocopy of the last note left by former Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster . Sotomayor ruled that the public had "a substantial interest" in viewing the note and enjoined the U.S. Justice Department from blocking its release. In New York Times Co. v. Tasini (1997), freelance journalists sued the New York Times Company for copyright infringement for The New York Times ' inclusion in an electronic archival database ( LexisNexis ) of

2914-643: The Yale Law Journal , and was also managing editor of the student-run Yale Studies in World Public Order publication (later known as the Yale Journal of International Law ). She published a law review note on the effect of possible Puerto Rican statehood on the island's mineral and ocean rights. She was a semi-finalist in the Barristers Union mock trial competition. She served as the co-chair of

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3008-663: The Equal Pay Act of 1963 . Harriot Daley became the first telephone switchboard operator at the United States Capitol in 1898. Julia O'Connor , a former telephone operator, led the Telephone Operators' Strike of 1919 and the Telephone Operators' Strike of 1923 against New England Telephone Company on behalf of the IBEW Telephone Operators' Department for better wages and working conditions. In

3102-528: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H. W. Bush in 1991; confirmation followed in 1992. In 1997, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit . Her appointment to the court of appeals was slowed by the Republican majority in the United States Senate because of their concerns that the position might lead to

3196-460: The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by John M. Walker Jr. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, led by a friendly Democratic majority, went smoothly for her in June 1992, with her pro bono activities winning praise from Senator Ted Kennedy and her getting unanimous approval from the committee. Then a Republican senator blocked her nomination and that of three others for

3290-530: The classics . She put in long hours in the library and worked over summers with a professor outside of class, and gained skills, knowledge and confidence. She became a moderate student activist and co-chair of the Acción Puertorriqueña organization, which served as a social and political hub and sought more opportunities for Puerto Rican students. She worked in the admissions office, traveling to high schools and lobbying on behalf of her best prospects. As

3384-517: The president to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the Senate , appoint justices to the Supreme Court. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution effectively grants life tenure to associate justices, and all other federal judges , which ends only when a justice dies, retires, resigns, or is impeached and convicted . Each Supreme Court justice has a single vote in deciding

3478-945: The "Women of the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit" of the American Expeditionary Forces in 1917–1919. They were bilingual female switchboard operators sent to France in the World War I. The 223 women were known informally as Hello Girls and were not formally recognized for their military service until 1978. In actuality, operators were rule-followers, but according to April Middeljans, in American drama, film, and magazines, they were often portrayed as rule-breaking rebels who challenged societal norms. Through disaster tales, detective stories, and romantic comedies, fiction writers suggest that operators were not just controlled by society, but rather played an active role in regulating it and shaping

3572-459: The 1919 strike, after five days, Postmaster General Burleson agreed to negotiate an agreement between the union and the telephone company, resulting in an increase in pay for the operators and recognition of the right to bargain collectively . However, the 1923 strike was called off after less than a month without achieving any of its goals. In 1983, in Bryant Pond, Maine , Susan Glines became

3666-551: The Clinton administration intended to "get her on to the Second Circuit, then elevate her to the Supreme Court as soon as an opening occurs"; the editorial criticized two of her district court rulings and urged further delay of her confirmation. The Republican block continued. Ranking Democratic committee member Patrick Leahy objected to Republican use of a secret hold to slow down the Sotomayor nomination, and Leahy attributed that anonymous tactic to GOP reticence about publicly opposing

3760-604: The East Bronx and South Bronx). In 2010, the Bronxdale Houses were renamed in her honor. Her relative proximity to Yankee Stadium led to her becoming a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees . The extended family got together frequently and regularly visited Puerto Rico during summers. Sotomayor grew up with an alcoholic father and a mother who was emotionally distant; she felt closest to her grandmother, who she later said

3854-419: The Supreme Court (unlike other retired federal judges who may be permitted to do so in their former courts); neither are they known or designated as a "senior judge". When, after his retirement, William O. Douglas attempted to take a more active role than was customary, maintaining that it was his prerogative to do so because of his senior status, he was rebuffed by Chief Justice Warren Burger and admonished by

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3948-629: The Supreme Court of the United States An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , other than the chief justice of the United States . The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869 . Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution of the United States grants plenary power to

4042-489: The Supreme Court. The justices, ordered by seniority, are: An associate justice who leaves the Supreme Court after attaining the age and meeting the service requirements prescribed by federal statute ( 28 U.S.C.   § 371 ) may retire rather than resign. After retirement, they keep their title, and by custom may also keep a set of chambers in the Supreme Court building, and employ law clerks. The names of retired associate justices continue to appear alongside those of

4136-409: The active justices in the bound volumes of Supreme Court decisions. Federal statute ( 28 U.S.C.   § 294 ) provides that retired Supreme Court justices may serve—if designated and assigned by the chief justice—on panels of the U.S. courts of appeals, or on the U.S. district courts. Retired justices are not, however, authorized to take part in the consideration or decision of any cases before

4230-469: The appeals court would put Sotomayor in a better position for a possible Supreme Court nomination (despite there being no vacancy at the time nor any indication the Clinton administration was considering nominating her or any Hispanic). Therefore, the Republican majority decided to slow her confirmation. Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh weighed in that Sotomayor was an ultraliberal who was on a "rocket ship" to

4324-598: The board of the Maternity Center Association , a Manhattan-based non-profit group which focused on improving the quality of maternity care. Sotomayor had wanted to become a judge since she was in elementary school, and in 1991 she was recommended for a spot by Democratic New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan . Moynihan had an unusual bipartisan arrangement with his fellow New York senator, Republican Al D'Amato , whereby he would get to choose roughly one out of every four New York district court seats even though

4418-446: The bottom row. Before the advent of operator distance dialing and customer direct dial (DDD) calling, a switchboard operator would work with their counterparts in distant central office to complete long-distance calls . Switchboard operators are typically required to have very strong communication skills. Before the advent of automatic exchanges , an operator's assistance was required for anything other than calling telephones across

4512-428: The cases argued before it, and the chief justice's vote counts no more than that of any other justice; however, the chief justice leads the discussion of the case among the justices. Furthermore, the chief justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the court's opinion; otherwise, the senior justice in the majority assigns the writing of a decision. The chief justice also has certain administrative responsibilities that

4606-405: The causes that lead these individuals to do these crimes, the effects are outrageous." Hispanic-on-Hispanic crime was of particular concern to her: "The saddest crimes for me were the ones that my own people committed against each other." In general, she showed a passion for bringing law and order to the streets of New York, displaying special zeal in pursuing child pornography cases, unusual for

4700-461: The commercial litigation practice group of Pavia & Harcourt in Manhattan as an associate. One of 30 attorneys in the law firm, she specialized in intellectual property litigation, international law , and arbitration . She later said, "I wanted to complete myself as an attorney." Although she had no civil litigation experience, the firm recruited her heavily, and she learned quickly on the job. She

4794-522: The conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run." Sotomayor described her time at Princeton as life-changing. Initially, she felt like "a visitor landing in an alien country" coming from the Bronx and Puerto Rico. Princeton had few female students and fewer Latinos (about twenty). She was too intimidated to ask questions during her freshman year; her writing and vocabulary skills were weak and she lacked knowledge in

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4888-446: The correct extensions . Today, most large organizations have direct inward dialing , or direct dial-in . Smaller workplaces may have an automated system which allows callers to enter the extension number of the called party, or a receptionist who answers calls and performs operator duties. Depending on the employment setting, the roles and level of responsibilities of a PBX operator can vary greatly, from performing wake-up calls in

4982-546: The courtroom, she was effective at cross examination and at simplifying a case in ways to which a jury could relate. In 1983, she helped convict Richard Maddicks (known as the "Tarzan Murderer" who acrobatically entered apartments, robbed them, and shot residents for no reason). She felt lower-level crimes were largely products of socioeconomic environment and poverty, but she had a different attitude about serious felonies: "No matter how liberal I am, I'm still outraged by crimes of violence. Regardless of whether I can sympathize with

5076-557: The early 1920s. It was attractive opportunity for ambitious young women in a small logging town out West who needed money for college. The role demanded quick decision-making, meticulous attention to detail, a very good memory for names, and the ability to handle criticism. Switchboard technology was a physically demanding task, involving numerous plugs, keys, lights, connecting cords, and complicated protocols for establishing connections. The full-time operators were on duty 56 hours per week, and while they often grumbled about being overworked by

5170-658: The effects of gentrification , although in the end she voted in favor of most of the projects. Sotomayor was appointed by Mayor Ed Koch in 1988 as one of the founding members of the New York City Campaign Finance Board , where she served for four years. There she took a vigorous role in the board's implementation of a voluntary scheme wherein local candidates received public matching funds in exchange for limits on contributions and spending and agreeing to greater financial disclosure. Sotomayor showed no patience with candidates who failed to follow regulations and

5264-667: The emergence of the Black Spades gang. In 1970, the family found refuge by moving to Co-op City in the Northeast Bronx. Sotomayor attended Princeton University . She has said she was admitted in part due to her achievements in high school and in part because affirmative action made up for her standardized test scores, which she described as "not comparable to her colleagues at Princeton and Yale." She would later say that there are cultural biases built into such testing and praised affirmative action for fulfilling "its purpose: to create

5358-450: The employment prospects of young women overall, as future cohorts of young women entered into other growing economic sectors. Before the 1960s, the telephone exchange with telephone switchboards and operators played a crucial role in connecting phone calls. A telephone switchboard is a device that allows telephone lines to be interconnected, enabling the routing of calls between different phones or phone networks. The switchboard operator

5452-484: The federal judiciary, as measured by the number of citations of her rulings by other judges and in law review articles, increased significantly during the length of her appellate judgeship and was greater than that of some other prominent federal appeals court judges. Two academic studies showed that the percentage of Sotomayor's decisions that overrode policy decisions by elected branches was the same as or lower than that of other circuit judges. Associate Justice of

5546-417: The first Puerto Rican woman to serve as a judge in a U.S. federal court. She was one of seven women among the district's 58 judges. She moved from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn , back to the Bronx in order to live within her district. Sotomayor generally kept a low public profile as a district court judge. She showed a willingness to take anti-government positions in a number of cases, and during her first year in

5640-644: The first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico , and on the territory's struggles for economic and political self-determination. The 178-page work, "La Historia Ciclica de Puerto Rico: The Impact of the Life of Luis Muñoz Marin on the Political and Economic History of Puerto Rico, 1930–1975", won honorable mention for the Latin American Studies Thesis Prize. As a senior, Sotomayor won the Pyne Prize,

5734-411: The first woman of color, the first Hispanic, and the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor was born in the Bronx , New York City, to Puerto Rican-born parents. Her father died when she was nine, and she was subsequently raised by her mother. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1979, where she

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5828-576: The highest court. During her September 1997 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee , Sotomayor parried strong questioning from some Republican members about mandatory sentencing , gay rights , and her level of respect for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas . After a long wait, she was approved by the committee in March 1998, with only two dissensions. However, in June 1998, the influential Wall Street Journal editorial page opined that

5922-425: The housing projects. Despite the distance between the two, which became greater after her father's death and which was not fully reconciled until decades later, Sotomayor has credited her mother with being her "life inspiration". For grammar school, Sotomayor attended Blessed Sacrament School in Soundview , where she was valedictorian and had a near-perfect attendance record. Although underage, Sotomayor worked at

6016-486: The largest urban rebuilding efforts in American history, the agency helped low-income people get home mortgages and to provide insurance coverage for housing and hospices for sufferers of AIDS. Despite being the youngest member of a board composed of strong personalities, she involved herself in the details of the operation and was effective. She was vocal in supporting the right to affordable housing, directing more funds to lower-income home owners, and in her skepticism about

6110-463: The last switchboard operator for a hand-crank phone when that exchange was converted. Manual central office switchboards continued in operation at rural points like Kerman, California , and Wanaaring, New South Wales , as late as 1991, but these were central-battery systems with no hand-cranked magnetos. According to a 2024 study, the mechanization of switchboard operations harmed the economic outcomes of incumbent telephone operators, but did not harm

6204-436: The law to the facts of a case rather than import general philosophical viewpoints. A Congressional Research Service analysis found that Sotomayor's rulings defied easy ideological categorization, but did show an adherence to precedent and an avoidance of overstepping the circuit court's judicial role. Unusually, Sotomayor read through all the supporting documents of cases under review; her lengthy rulings explored every aspect of

6298-407: The other justices do not and is paid slightly more ($ 298,500 per year as of 2023, compared to $ 285,400 per year for an associate justice). Associate justices have seniority in order of the date their respective commissions bear, although the chief justice is always considered to be the most senior justice. If two justices are commissioned on the same day, the elder is designated the senior justice of

6392-489: The plaudits of baseball fans, and had a lasting effect on the game. In the preparatory phase of the case, Sotomayor informed the lawyers of both sides that, "I hope none of you assumed ... that my lack of knowledge of any of the intimate details of your dispute meant I was not a baseball fan. You can't grow up in the South Bronx without knowing about baseball." In Dow Jones v. Department of Justice (1995), Sotomayor sided with

6486-419: The seat, she received high ratings from liberal public-interest groups. Other sources and organizations regarded her as a centrist during this period. In criminal cases, she gained a reputation for tough sentencing and was not viewed as a pro-defense judge. A Syracuse University study found that in such cases, Sotomayor generally handed out longer sentences than her colleagues, especially when white-collar crime

6580-606: The telephone directory of the New England Telephone Company . More women began to replace men within this sector of the workforce for several reasons. The companies observed that women were generally more courteous to callers, and women's labor was cheap in comparison to men's. Specifically, women were paid from one half to one quarter of a man's salary. In the United States, any switchboard operator employed by any independently owned public telephone company with no more than seven hundred fifty stations were excluded from

6674-511: The telephone network. Dial phones were invented in the 1930s but took years to become standard. New Hampshire switched to dials town by town from 1950 to 1973. Switchboards and operators were an integral part of the telecommunications system until the introduction of electronic switching systems in the mid-20th century. Dorothy M. Johnson , who later became a famous writer, started as a part-time relief operator at age 14 in Whitefish, Montana , in

6768-444: The telephone operator was necessary to complete calls. With the development of computerized telephone dialing systems, many telephone calls which previously required live operators could be placed directly by calling parties without additional human intervention. As well as the people that were employed by the public networks, operators were required at private branch exchanges (PBX) to answer incoming calls and connect them to

6862-407: The television program Seinfeld infringed on the copyright of the show's producer and did not constitute legal fair use . The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Sotomayor's ruling. On June 25, 1997, Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit , which was vacated by J. Daniel Mahoney . Her nomination

6956-473: The time that she did so with conflicted emotions: "There was a tremendous amount of pressure from my community, from the third world community, at Yale. They could not understand why I was taking this job. I'm not sure I've ever resolved that problem." It was a time of crisis-level crime rates and drug problems in New York, Morgenthau's staff was overburdened with cases, and like other rookie prosecutors, Sotomayor

7050-410: The time. She worked 15-hour days and gained a reputation for being driven and for her preparedness and fairness. One of her job evaluations labelled her a "potential superstar". Morgenthau later described her as "smart, hard-working, [and having] a lot of common sense," and as a "fearless and effective prosecutor." She stayed a typical length of time in the post and had a common reaction to the job: "After

7144-492: The top award for undergraduates, which reflected both strong grades and extracurricular activities. In 1976, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in history. She was influenced by critical race theory , which would be reflected in her later speeches and writings. Sotomayor entered Yale Law School in the fall of 1976. While she believes she again benefited from affirmative action to compensate for relatively low standardized test scores,

7238-424: The two. Currently, the senior associate justice is Clarence Thomas . By tradition, when the justices are in conference deliberating the outcome of cases before the Supreme Court, the justices state their views in order of seniority. The senior associate justice is also tasked with carrying out the chief justice's duties when he is unable to, or if that office is vacant. There are currently eight associate justices on

7332-463: The whole Court. There are currently three living retired associate justices: David Souter , retired June 29, 2009; Anthony Kennedy , retired July 31, 2018; and Stephen Breyer , retired June 30, 2022. Souter has served on panels of the First Circuit Courts of Appeals following his retirement; Kennedy and Breyer have not performed any judicial duties since retiring. Since the Supreme Court

7426-416: The work of freelancers it had published. Sotomayor ruled that the publisher had the right to license the freelancers' work. This decision was reversed on appeal, and the Supreme Court upheld the reversal; two dissenters ( John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer ) took Sotomayor's position. In Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group (also in 1997), Sotomayor ruled that a book of trivia from

7520-515: The world's first telephone operator when he started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company. Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company, because the attitude and behaviour of the teenage boys previously employed as operators was unacceptable. Emma was hired by Alexander Graham Bell and, reportedly, could remember every number in

7614-403: Was a person who manually connected calls by plugging and unplugging cords on the switchboard. The role of the switchboard and operator was important because they were responsible for connecting callers with the correct party and ensuring that calls were completed correctly. They also provided assistance with making long-distance calls, directory assistance, and other services related to the use of

7708-520: Was a source of "protection and purpose". Sotomayor was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age seven, and began taking daily insulin injections. Her father died of heart problems at age 42, when she was nine years old. After that, she became fluent in English. Celina Sotomayor put great stress on the value of education; she bought the Encyclopædia Britannica for her children, something unusual in

7802-417: Was a top policy maker who worked actively with the organization's lawyers on issues such as New York City hiring practices, police brutality, the death penalty, and voting rights. The group achieved its most visible triumph when it successfully blocked a city primary election on the grounds that New York City Council boundaries diminished the power of minority voters. During 1985 and 1986, Sotomayor served on

7896-518: Was an editor of the Yale Law Journal . Sotomayor worked as an assistant district attorney in New York for four and a half years before entering private practice in 1984. She played an active role on the boards of directors for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund , the State of New York Mortgage Agency , and the New York City Campaign Finance Board . Sotomayor was nominated to

7990-521: Was confirmed by the Senate in August 2009 by a vote of 68–31. While on the Court, Sotomayor has supported the informal liberal bloc of justices when they divide along the commonly perceived ideological lines. During her Supreme Court tenure, Sotomayor has been identified with concern for the rights of criminal defendants and criminal justice reform as seen in majority opinions such as J. D. B. v. North Carolina , and

8084-413: Was eager to try cases and argue in court, rather than be part of a larger law firm. Her clients were mostly international corporations doing business in the United States; much of her time was spent tracking down and suing counterfeiters of Fendi goods. In some cases, Sotomayor went on-site with the police to Harlem or Chinatown to have illegitimate merchandise seized, in the latter instance pursuing

8178-401: Was established in 1789, the following 104 persons have served as an associate justice: Switchboard operator A typical manual telephone switchboard has a vertical panel containing an array of jacks with a desk in front. The desk has a row of switches and two rows of plugs attached to cables that retract into the desk when not in use. Each pair of plugs was part of a cord circuit with

8272-484: Was going to become an attorney, and I knew that when I was ten. Ten. That's no jest." Sotomayor passed the entrance tests for and then attended Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx. At Cardinal Spellman, Sotomayor was on the forensics team and was elected to the student government . She graduated as valedictorian in 1972. Meanwhile, the Bronxdale Houses had fallen victim to increasing heroin use, crime, and

8366-601: Was initially expected to have smooth sailing, with the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary giving her a "well qualified" professional assessment. However, as The New York Times described, "[it became] embroiled in the sometimes tortured judicial politics of the Senate." Some in the Republican majority believed Clinton was eager to name the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and that an easy confirmation to

8460-399: Was initially fearful of appearing before judges in court. Working in the trial division, she handled heavy caseloads as she prosecuted everything from shoplifting and prostitution to robberies , assaults, and murders. She also worked on cases involving police brutality . She was not afraid to venture into tough neighborhoods or endure squalid conditions in order to interview witnesses. In

8554-669: Was involved. Fellow district judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum was an influence on Sotomayor in adopting a narrow, "just the facts" approach to judicial decision-making. As a trial judge, she garnered a reputation for being well-prepared in advance of a case and moving cases along a tight schedule. Lawyers before her court viewed her as plain-spoken, intelligent, demanding, and sometimes somewhat unforgiving; one said, "She does not have much patience for people trying to snow her. You can't do it." On March 30, 1995, in Silverman v. Major League Baseball Player Relations Committee, Inc. , Sotomayor issued

8648-417: Was more of a stickler for making campaigns follow those regulations than some of the other board members. She joined in rulings that fined, audited, or reprimanded the mayoral campaigns of Koch, David Dinkins , and Rudy Giuliani . Based upon another recommendation from Cabranes, Sotomayor was a member of the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1980 to 1992. There she

8742-401: Was not connected to the party bosses that typically picked people for such jobs in New York, and indeed she was registered as an independent . Instead, District Attorney Morgenthau, an influential figure, served as her patron. In 1987, Governor of New York Mario Cuomo appointed Sotomayor to the board of the State of New York Mortgage Agency , which she served on until 1992. As part of one of

8836-406: Was seen as politically centrist at the time. Of the impending drop in salary from private practice, Sotomayor said: "I've never wanted to get adjusted to my income because I knew I wanted to go back to public service. And in comparison to what my mother earns and how I was raised, it's not modest at all." Sotomayor was thus nominated on November 27, 1991, by President George H. W. Bush to a seat on

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