Sotomayor Says A Woman Chief Justice May Be Unlikely In Her Lifetime
Is Sotomayor in favor of term limits for SCOTUS justices? Without change, she says things feel 'static' at the high court.
(Photo by ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
Kids often ask me when will there be a woman chief justice. And I go, ‘Maybe not in my lifetime.’ I don’t know because Chief Justice Roberts is younger than I am.
Since I’ve been there—16 years now—there are five new members. But when you have an institution in which you’re building up that much tenure among people, it can feel more static than institutions like the presidency that change every eight years or other political institutions that change more regularly.
— Justice Sonia Sotomayor, explaining why the Supreme Court can be slow to enact change, thanks in part to justices’ lifelong tenures, in comments given during the New York State Bar Association’s civics education convocation.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
