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Quote by Sonia Sotomayor

“Many of the gaps in my knowledge and understanding were simply limits of class and cultural background, not lack of aptitude or application as I feared. Page 135”

Quote by Sonia Sotomayor

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My Beloved World

In this personal narrative, Justice Sonia Sotomayor shares her experiences growing up in the Bronx, her struggles with illness, her education, and her journey to becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. more

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Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the first Hispanic woman to serve in this role. Born on June 25, 1954, she has a background that includes a challenging upbringing in the South Bronx, New York, which fueled her passion for law. Sotomayor graduated from Princeton University and Yale Law School, and her career has been characterized by a strong commitment to public service and civil rights. She has served as a federal judge and has been a vocal advocate for equality and justice, leaving a lasting impact on a variety of legal issues. more

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“The Poverty Tour provided the opportunity to meet many people who had been living paycheck to paycheck even before the economic downturn. To so quickly slide from the great middle into the underworld of the poor validated our suspicions that perhaps these citizens never really were bona fide, middle class Americans. Indeed, some economists assert that the middle class evaporated decades ago.”

“In theory at any rate each militia was a democracy and not a hierarchy . It was understood that orders had to be obeyed, but it was also understood that when you gave an order you gave it as comrade to comrade and not as superior to inferior. There were officers and NCOs, but there was no military rank in the ordinary sense; not titles, no badges, no heel-clicking and saluting. They had attempted to produce within the militias a sort of temporary working model of the classless society.”

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“Since Ivy League admissions data is a notoriously classified commodity, when when Harvard officials said in previous years that alumni kids were just better, you had to take their word. But then federal investigators came along and pried open those top-secret files. The Harvard guys were lying. This past fall, after two years of study, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found that, far from being more qualified or equally qualified, the average admitted legacy at Harvard between 1981 and 1988 was significantly LESS qualified than the average admitted nonlegacy. Examining admissions office ratings on academics, extracurriculars, personal qualities, recommendations, and other categories, the OCR concluded that "with the exception of the athletic rating, [admitted] nonlegacies scored better than legacies in ALL areas of comparison." In his recent book, "Preferential Policies", Thomas Sowell argues that doling out special treatment encourages lackluster performance by the favored and resentment from the spurned. His far-ranging study flits from Malaysia to South Africa to American college campuses. Legacies don't merit a word.”