An Outsider's Guide to the SCOTUS Justices (pt. 2)

Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice

Justice Sonia Sotomayor earned a B.A. in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and receiving the Pyne Prize, the highest academic honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate. She earned her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979 where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office from 1979–1984. She was an associate and then partner litigating international commercial matters in NYC at Pavia & Harcourt from 1984–1992. She served in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York after being nominated by President George H. W. Bush from 1992–1998. From there President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where she served from until 2009, when President Barack Obama nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter and she assumed this role the same year. She is the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor is a consistent liberal, though she has been known to sometimes dissent with her fellow liberals. She is seen as very vocal when hearing oral arguments. The two issues she seems to be known for are the defense of affirmative action and issues of racial, ethnic, and gender identity, as well as due process and the rights of the accused. She remains active outside of the court, giving speeches and publishing books, which have supposedly earned her millions of dollars.

Elena Kagan, Associate Justice

Justice Elena Kagan received an B.A. from Princeton in 1981, a Master of Philosophy from Oxford in 1983, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1986. She clerked for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1986-1987 and notably for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1987 Term. After a brief private practice she became a law professor, first at U Chicago and later at Harvard. She also served for four years in the Clinton Administration, as Associate Counsel to the President and then as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Between 2003 and 2009, she served as the Dean of Harvard Law School. In 2009, President Obama nominated her as the Solicitor General of the United States and nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court a year later . She took her seat on August 7, 2010.

Kagan advocated for standard issues of greater concern to the political left such as opposing government support of particular religion, defending rights for criminals, staunch support for voting rights and opposition to racial redistricting. Her rationale on environmental cases point to factors other than the law itself being considered in her decision, indicating a level of ideological influence. Justice Kagan tends to only write opinions shared by other justices and does not write a lot of opinions relative to the other justices, so it’s hard to say for sure what her own views are. She’s personally well regarded as cordial with a good sense of humor.

Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice

Justice Neil Gorsuch received a B.A. from Columbia University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University. He clerked for Judges David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Justice Byron White, and Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1995–2005, he was in private practice, followed by a stint for a year as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 2006. He served on two important committees regulating judicial branch proceedings from within the branch itself. He taught at University of Colorado’s Law School. President Donald J. Trump nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to replace the deceased Antonin Scalia. Democrats filibustered his nomination and Republicans gutted the filibuster for supreme court nominations. Why filibustering takes 2/3rds majority to override but simply banning filibusters requires just a simple majority is beyond me. Besides the partisan showmanship and some weak challenges to his professionalism his nomination was without a hitch and he took his seat on April 10, 2017.

Gorsuch is both an originalist, believing that the Constitution ought to be interpreted in its original context, but also a textualist, meaning he believes that statutes should be interpreted literally and without regard to history or intent. This is possibly because the Constitution is of much greater weight than regular statutes. It’s probably not wrong to think of him as a conservative, but he has been willing to provide the swing vote on the side of liberals on numerous occasions. He tends to vote in favor of the less powerful of the two sides of the case, such as state over federal government and individual over local government. He attends an Episcopal church. The issue of personal importance to him is opposition to assisted suicide, which may be connected in some way to him siding on the 5-4 majority in the Dobbs decision.