The court’s most liberal justice assumed her position with $750,000 to her name. She is worth a lot more than that now.
FORBES
On Saturday, August 8, 2009, in a wood-paneled room inside the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor became Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina on the nation’s highest judicial body. With her 82-year-old mother at her side, she raised her right hand and repeated the judicial oath, promising to “do equal right to the poor and to the rich.” She had been poor for much of her life, and thanks to her new position, was about to become fairly rich.
Sotomayor was worth around $750,000 at the time. Now, she is worth an estimated $5 million. Her position has brought her fame, and that fame has led to book deals, providing $3.8 million in earnings since she joined the court. The post also allowed her to hire staff, which she used for many things—including reportedly pumping up her book sales, something that drew scrutiny but apparently stayed within the bounds of the law, if only because Supreme Court justices have fewer ethics restrictions than other government officials. Sotomayor has also benefited from another perk of the Supreme Court: an incredibly lucrative pension. Since age 65, the now 69-year-old has been guaranteed her salary, currently $285,400, for the rest of her life—a benefit worth an estimated $2.3 million.
Sotomayor did not grow up with this sort of money. Born in the South Bronx in 1954, she spent most of her childhood in a decaying public-housing project. Her parents had moved to New York from Puerto Rico just 10 years earlier, and her father died when she was nine, leaving her mother, Celina, to raise Sonia and her brother. A practical nurse, Celina earned less than $5,000 a year for all of Sotomayor’s childhood. Adding to the challenges, Sonia was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at seven years old.
But Sonia was lucky in one way—her mother emphasized education. Sotomayor went to Catholic schools her whole childhood. “Discipline was what made Catholic school a good investment in my mother’s eyes, worth the heavy burden of the tuition fees,” she wrote in her 2013 memoir. The family scraped by thanks to work, debt and luck, including a $5,000 gift from Sonia’s doctor after he passed away. Sotomayor learned to fluently speak, read and study in English by fifth grade. She later graduated high school as valedictorian and earned admittance to four Ivy League colleges.
