Ivy-Educated Thomas and Sotomayor Divide on Affirmative Action

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas overcame humble beginnings and racial discrimination before earning elite educations, but they bring very different views about race-conscious college admissions to the Supreme Court as it weighs affirmative action challenges.

Sotomayor, 68, a liberal and the court’s first Latina, has called herself the “perfect affirmative action baby.” Thomas, 74, a conservative and the court’s second Black justice, considers it stigmatizing.

Thomas “believes that everyone is capable of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps,” Sotomayor said at a recent Roosevelt University event, adding “I believe not everyone can reach their bootstraps.”

The ...