Overcome obstacles, work for justice, Sotomayor urges law students

Whitewashing the Jury Box: How California Perpetuates the Discriminatory Exclusion of Black and Latinx Jurors - Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims' Family Members Who Will Be Left to Defend Human Rights? Persecution of Online Expression in the Gulf and Neighboring Countries By Andrew Cohen  Sonia Sotomayor hasn't changed jobs since her last visit to Berkeley Law in 2017. Yet in many ways, her work as a United States Supreme Court justice seems decidedly different. Back then, the Court featured an even split of progressive and conservative justices, with centrist Anthony Kennedy often the swing vote in 5-4 decisions. Now, with a clear 6-3 conservative majority, Sotomayor often finds herself decrying major rulings on issues from affirmative action and reproductive choice to LGBTQ rights and student loan relief. Nevertheless, at the annual Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture Monday before a packed crowd of Berkeley Law students, faculty, and staff inside Zellerbach Hall, she conveyed optimism about the power of citizen engagement fueled by a sense of justice and historical perspective.  "What choice do you have but to fight the good fight?" Sotomayor said during her hour-long discussion with Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. "You can't throw up your hands and walk away. That's not a choice. That's abdication. That's giving up. How can you look at the heroes like Thurgood Marshall, like the freedom fighters who went to lunch counters and got beaten, like John Lewis who marched over that bridge in Selma and got his head busted open - how can you look at those people and say you're entitled to despair?