The Sotomayor Senior Thesis

by Cliopatria

Over the weekend, I had a chance to read Sonia Sotomayor’s Princeton senior thesis, which examined the intersection between the political and economic agendas of longtime Puerto Rican governor Luis Muñoz Marín. My colleague on the lacrosse book, Stuart Taylor, posted some of my comments at National Journal’s “Ninth Justice” blog.

The Sotomayor nomination strikes me as a brilliant political move but a somewhat puzzling selection in terms of jurisprudence. (I write as someone who was and is a fervent Obama supporter.) As a candidate, the President promised excellence in appointments, yet I haven’t seen many people favorably compare Sotomayor’s opinions to those of Diane Wood, or favorably compare her intellectual excellence to that of Elena Kagan or Pam Karlan. Obama also expressed a repeated desire to move beyond the culture wars that polarized U.S. politics in the 1980s and 1990s—yet, of the finalists for the appointment, Sotomayor was the only selection (due to her “wise Latina” speech and the odd emphasis on a possible ADA claim in her initial, unpublished, opinion in the Ricci case, which suggested a desire to distract from the central claim of reverse racism) who seemed likely to inflame the conflict over identity politics.

Something of the puzzle inherent in the Sotomayor nomination was evident in the thesis as well. Like most of her later opinions, it’s well-written and well-researched, and she allowed her arguments to follow her data. Yet, like Ricci and the “wise Latina” remark, it has occasional jarring items, such as her reference to Congress as the “North American Congress” or her support for the fringe position of Puerto Rican independence.

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Jonathan Dresner - 6/5/2009

What "behavior in the Ricci case"?

Never mind. I know what you're talking about and don't have the time or energy to care anymore.

Robert KC Johnson - 6/5/2009

On the question of how much of my undergrad experience was encapsulated in my senior thesis--quite a bit. At Harvard (like at Princeton for Sotomayor) the thesis is long (mine was around 130pp.) and covers two semesters of classwork. My thesis explored (in a narrative fashion) Congress and foreign policy. I had taken several political and diplomatic history courses before writing my thesis. So, yes, I would say it fairly encapsulated my experience. That's my sense of most of the students whose theses I advised at Harvard both as a TA and later as a visiting prof.

With regard to Sotomayor, most of the articles that I have read about her suggest that the topic of the thesis was very much in line with the interest in her Puerto Rican identity that she displayed while at Princeton. I didn't really think that was at all a controversial point.

As to whether her undergraduate experience or her time as an ADA is more relevant to determining her fitness for the Supreme Court, I don't think either are particularly significant in and of themselves. Either (or both) might be of some interest as part of broader trends, as would be the case with any Supreme Court nominee.

For instance, on the issue of identity politics, it came out a couple of days ago that Sotomayor had given versions of the "wise Latina" argument three times in speeches, which pretty much undermines the White House's argument that she simply misspoke at Berkeley.

As I said in the original post, the appointment was politically brilliant for Obama. But given that he had campaigned, in part, on a promise of moving beyond the culture wars, it was a little disappointing to see Obama choose the only finalist for the job who had a very close connection (both in her speeches and in her behavior in the Ricci case) to some of the more aggressive versions of identity politics.

Jonathan Dresner - 6/4/2009

WaPo's profile of her Manhattan DA career seems a bit more on point, especially given the pro-prosecutorial bias she seems to have.

Alan Allport - 6/3/2009

Politico doesn't 'note' anything; he asserts. And it's a flimsy, reductive assertion. Who cares what she thought when she was 22? Does any middle-aged person much resemble the adolescent they once were, in word or in deed?

Jonathan Dresner - 6/3/2009

Politico's engaging in a pretty weak bit of argument by assertion and cheap biographical determinism.

How much of your undergraduate experience was encapsulated in your thesis, KC?

Does the fact that I didn't write one mean that I didn't have an undergraduate experience?

Robert KC Johnson - 6/3/2009

I guess I would frame the question in reverse: why would any sensible person not care, especially since, as Politico has noted, her Princeton experience is of unusual importance to understanding her.

Alan Allport - 6/3/2009

... would any sensible person care what she wrote in her undergraduate thesis 33 years ago?