Sonia Sotomayor: A New Glass Ceiling
Posted August 11th, 2009by Ilan Stavans
The swearing-in of Sonia Sotomayor, on August 8, 2009, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the first Puerto Rican to reach such a prestigious institution, ought to be a moment of jubilation.
For centuries Hispanics have felt alienated in, from, and by the legal system. Too many of us are on the wrong side of the law—in jail and not on the bench. But Sotomayor replaces David H. Souter, who is returning to life as a private citizen in New Hampshire. Although during the nomination process she wore her heart on her sleeve, her left-leaning views aren’t expected to change the political chessboard of the court.
Whether or not they acknowledge it, every judge is defined by their environment and the individual choices they’ve made along the way. From her childhood in the Bronx, to her education in Ivy League schools, and her journey as an assistant district attorney and a federal district judge in New York, Sotomayor’s trajectory seems identifiable to millions of Latinos.
In the years to come, her gender and ethnicity won’t stay at the door. However, her most important test—and in that her Latina identity might play a crucial role—will be whether she is able to stand up to the conservative block on the Supreme Court, comprised of Antonin Scalia, John G. Roberts, Jr., Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas. Will Sotomayor feel intimidated by the white male establishment as she did upon arriving as a student to Princeton, where she graduated summa cum laude? Does she have the knowledge and acumen not only to protect her independence but also to make the debate more compassionate?
For while Sotomayor is indeed a “first”—surely as a woman, if not necessarily as a Hispanic, as I’ve argued elsewhere (http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/10358/who-is-first-hispanic-justice), depending on how one defines the term Hispanic, Louis Brandeis, who was Jewish of Sephardic descent and was nominated by Woodrow Wilson, serving from 1916 to 1939, might have been the first in that regard—the new glass ceiling is symbolized by the connection between intelligence, femininity, and Latinidad; a triptych that unfortunately doesn’t receive enough attention in our public sphere.
