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Sonia Sotomayor Is Way More Optimistic Than She Has Any Right To Be

‘So don't give up, OK?’

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Sonia Sotomayor

Justice Sonia Sotomayor (Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images)

Disillusioned with the legal system? Trust you aren’t alone. But when speaking to a law student at an event who expressed a similar sentiment, the longest serving liberal member of the Court took some time to offer words of encouragement. Earlier this week, Sonia Sotomayor spoke with students at Fordham Law School via video. “Wrong things can be changed,” Sotomayor told the student, adding, “So don’t give up, OK?”

As reported by CNN, Sotomayor’s advice continued, “identify what’s disillusioning you and become a champion of change – go out there and fight.”

“That’s how I get up every morning. I look at what my battle is that day and I accept that for today I might lose,” she said. But, the work continues: “The arc of the universe does bend toward justice but we have to help.”

In her time at Fordham, she also noted that the greatest challenge the Court faces is “to maintain the public’s trust.” Something that feels pretty related to the above discussed disillusionment.

The justice spoke broadly about the legal profession but her comments come as the court’s public approval ratings have plummeted. Some challenges, she said, have to do with “uncertainties in the law” – and even the actions of the current court, referencing “decisions of my court that are altering approaches to the law in ways that people don’t understand.”

She also spoke about the current partisan divide in Washington, which, she said, could lead to the law “taking an even more prominent place in resolving political disputes because the political branches are unable to.”

All that and Sotomayor is able to maintain her optimism. This is why she’s the one with the lifetime appointment.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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