All of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people out there with court of appeals experience, because court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know, I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law, I know. I know.

While many cases are decided unanimously or with different voting coalitions Sotomayor has continued to be a reliable member of the liberal bloc of the court when the justices divide along the commonly perceived ideological lines. Sotomayor refused to be interviewed by the firm further and filed her complaint with a faculty–student tribunal which ruled in her favor. Wallingford Board of Education (1999) the parents of a black student alleged that he had been harassed due to his race and had been discriminated against when he was transferred from a first grade class to a kindergarten class without parental consent while similarly situated white students were treated differently.

Sotomayor was born in The Bronx New York City and is of Puerto Rican descent. She worked as an assistant district attorney in New York for four and a half years before entering private practice in 1984. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.