Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts

June 25 - Happy Birthday, Sonia Sotomayor

Posted on June 25, 2020

The first Hispanic and Latina justice on the U.S. Supreme Court!

Born in The Bronx in New York City on this date in 1954...
Both of her parents born in Puerto Rico...
Her dad having only a third-grade education, not speaking any English, and dying when Sonia Sotomayor was just 9 years old...


...You might not have guessed that Sotomayor would achieve great things!

She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age seven. She was inspired by fictional girl-detective Nancy Drew, but her doctors suggested that she would need a different career than "detective." Drawing on inspiration from fictional lawyer Perry Mason, Sotomayor decided at age 10 that she would herself be a lawyer when she grew up.

A single mom, after her husband died, Sonia Sotomayor's mother became a practical nurse and encouraged her children to take advantage of schooling to gain an education. That encouragement apparently worked: not only did Sonia graduate from Princeton (B.A., summa cum laude) and Yale (J.D., editor of the Yale Law Journal) and go on to become an assistant district attorney, a lawyer in private practice, a judge and then of course a justice on SCOTUS - not only did she succeed hugely in life, but her younger brother Juan became a doctor and a university professor!

It's not just all of that traditional success that makes Sonia Sotomayor amazing, it's her passion for human rights, for reform of the criminal justice system, for equality under the law!






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September 7 - Happy Birthday to Canadian Supreme Court Trailblazers!



Posted on September 7, 2019


I love the robes worn by Canada's Supreme
Court justices. Very jolly, aren't they?

Don't you find it surprising that two different "first female jurists" from Canada's Supreme Court were born on the same day (but on different years, of course)?

I mean, only nine women have ever been appointed to the nation's highest court, so far. And there are 365 days in the year (most years). And two of these nine women happened to be born on the same day? Wow!

 Claire L'Heureux-Dubé - born on this date in 1927 - served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Canada. She was the first woman from Quebec and the second woman from all of Canada appointed to this position.


Beverly Marian McLachlin - born on this date in 1943 - served as the Chief Justice of Canada. She was the first
woman to hold that position. Also, she was the longest serving Chief Justice in Canadian history.


The lesson here is, if you are a Canadian female born on September 7, you should consider going into the law - because you may have a better than average chance of rising to the highest level of judgeships! 
(Just joking, of course!)

Canada's Supreme Court originally had six justices (one of whom is the Chief Justice), but it was expanded to seven and then nine. By law, three of the nine justices are held by judges from Quebec. By tradition, three of the remaining judges are from Ontario, two are from the four western provinces, and one is from the Atlantic provinces. I guess that means that, by tradition, Supreme Court justices can't be from the large-but-largely-empty territories?

The Supreme Court of Canada is located in the nation's
capital, Ottawa.

By the way, the United States currently has three Supreme Court justices that are women, and it has had four female justices all together. It has never had a female Chief Justice - not yet, at least! - but as far as HUGE popularity goes, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is tops in many people's books!

So popular, there is a seriously LOT of Ruther Bader Ginsburg merch available:











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