Sonia Sotomayor time, and the Portuguese are generally excluded from its meaning. Sotomayor is among four women to have historically served on the Court, together with Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, the last of whom won confirmation a year after Sotomayor by a comparable 63–37 vote. Sotomayor's appointment gave the Court a record six Roman Catholic justices serving at the same time. Sotomayor became one of the three youngest of the justices sitting on the Court, along with John Roberts and Elena Kagan. Sotomayor cast her first vote as an associate Supreme Court justice on August 17, 2009,
Sonia Sotomayor before her panel, 45 were rejected, with Sotomayor never filing a dissent. An expanded study showed that Sotomayor decided 97 cases involving a claim of discrimination and rejected those claims nearly 90 percent of the time. Another examination of Second Circuit split decisions on cases that dealt with race and discrimination showed no clear ideological pattern in Sotomayor's opinions. In the Court of Appeals seat, Sotomayor gained a reputation for vigorous and blunt behavior toward lawyers appealing before her, sometimes to the point of brusque and curt treatment or testy interruptions. She was known for extensive preparation for oral arguments