Laurence Tribe, letter to Barack Obama, 4 May 2009
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If you were to appoint someone like Sonia Sotomayor, whose personal history and demographic appeal you don't need me to underscore, I am concerned that the impact within the Court would be negative in these respects. Bluntly put, she's not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is, and her reputation for being something of a bully could well make her liberal impulses backfire and simply add to the fire power of the Roberts/Alito/Scalio/Thomas wing of the Court.
— Laurence Tribe on Sonia Sotomayor
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "If you were to appoint someone like Sonia Sotomayor, whose personal history and demographic appeal you don't need me to underscore, I am concerned that the impact within the Court would be negative in these respects. Bluntly put, she's not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is, and her reputation for being something of a bully could well make her liberal impulses backfire and simply add to the fire power of the Roberts/Alito/Scalio/Thomas wing of the Court." in the context of "Laurence Tribe, letter to Barack Obama, 4 May 2009" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Sonia Sotomayor" (Quotes about Sonia Sotomayor)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Laurence Tribe
Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American constitutional law scholar, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at the Harvard Law School, and co-founder of the American Constitution Society. He is the author of several books, including a major treatise, American Constitutional Law (1978) and has argued before the United States Supreme Court dozens of times.
About Laurence Tribe
Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American constitutional law scholar, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at the Harvard Law School, and co-founder of the American Constitution Society. He is the author of several books, including a major treatise, American Constitutional Law (1978) and has argued before the United States Supreme Court dozens of times.
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