WASHINGTON — In some ways, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s just-finished first term on the Supreme Court was like those of many who have come before her: She worked constantly, turned down interview requests, wrote largely noncontroversial opinions and was ideologically true to the president who appointed her.
But the court’s first Latino member, and only its third woman, has hardly had the typical first-termer’s experience.
She danced at the White House to a song written in her honor. She arrived in her parents’ homeland of Puerto Rico to a heroine’s welcome and to find T-shirts and coffee mugs bearing her likeness and the words “wise Latina.” The Bronx public housing project where she grew up is now the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses. When the New York Yankees visited the White House after winning the World Series, team officials made sure to lug the trophy to her chambers.
Sotomayor, 56, remains a New Yorker. She has a common New York complaint about Washington: Not enough restaurants deliver.
Sotomayor handed her niece a diploma at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and she spoke to the Bronx community college where her mother once received a nursing degree.
“This past year, I have often felt like I was living in a dream, wondering when someone was going to pinch me to wake me up,” she told the St. Lawrence graduates. “The hours can be long, but I have found that the long hours are painless when you are doing what you love. And I love my job.”
She has received public accolades from Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia, both conservatives, and those who practice before the court find that she is prepared with detailed questions and has a businesslike manner.
She has sided with the liberal wing of the court on issues in which ideology appeared to play a role in the outcome, such as gun rights, religious symbols on public land and life sentences without parole for juveniles in nonhomicide cases.
