Linking Law and Life: Justice Sotomayor's Judicial Voice

Abstract

Since her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2009, Justice Sonia Sotomayor has become a public celebrity who appears in both legal and non-legal venues as judge, memoirist, and baseball fan. Her opinions, however, are considerably more restrained, speaking in a judicial voice that responds to legal issues in terms of ordinary experience. She is usually puzzled rather than angered when her fellow Justices disagree with her. She draws her imagery from such familiar situations as waiting in line and striking out at the plate. And she uses colloquial diction to make her opinions accessible to non-lawyers, asking that all her readers, whether trained in the law or not, keep in mind the necessary links between life and the law that governs it.

Keywords: Sonia Sotomayor, legal writing, judges, Supreme Court

JEL Classification: K10