If it weren’t for her opponents, Justice Sonia Sotomayor may have never become a federal appellate judge – let alone a Supreme Court justice.

Sotomayor, speaking yesterday at Sturm College of Law in Denver, said she was happy as a trial judge when President Bill Clinton tapped her for a post on the 2^nd Circuit. But when opponents resisted at her nomination, it made her want it more.

“If they hadn’t fought so hard, I would have given up earlier,” she said, according to the Denver Post. “I didn’t want to let them beat me.”

When asked if her Puerto Rican ethnicity caused her to face bias, Sotomayor suggested it was the reason some critics questioned her intelligence during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

“People kept accusing me of not being smart enough,” Sotomayor said. “Can anyone explain other than I am Hispanic why that would be?”

This entry was posted on Friday, August 27th, 2010 at 7:53 am and is filed under Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.