Calls for Sonia Sotomayor to retire are ‘ableism, pure and simple,’ advocates say

Sara Luterman/Caregiving reporter

April 10, 2024

Commentators have recently singled out the Supreme Court justice, who has type 1 diabetes. Disability lead s say it’s not a reason for her to resign.

*Correction appended.

For months — particularly with the November election approaching — left-leaning commentators like former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan have expressed concern that because Sotomayor is 69 years old and has type 1 diabetes, she may need to be replaced on the bench before another Democrat is elected to the White House. This would leave a 7-2 conservative court majority. Sotomayor was appointed by then-President Barack Obama in 2009 and is the first and only Latina to serve on the court. 

Maria Town, president of the nonpartisan American Association of People with Disabilities, has called the concerns “ableism, pure and simple.” 

“She is the target of calls to resign because of assumptions about her health as a diabetic,” Town said. 

Mia Ives-Rublee, director for the Disability Justice Initiative at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, expressed frustration with fellow Democrats and progressives. 

“The call by several prominent progressive figures for Justice Sotomayor to resign at 69, because of her diabetes, are absolutely tied to ableism and the belief that disabled people are always just a step away from death,” Ives-Rublee told The 19th. She has confidence that Sotomayor is fit to sit on the Supreme Court. 

“I trust that, like all disabled people, she knows best about her body. Bodily autonomy is not just about reproductive rights. It’s about allowing people, including disabled people, to choose how they want to live their lives,” she said. 

During a press briefing last week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Joe Biden and the White House will not join in calls for Sotomayor to resign. 

“When it comes to those types of decisions, those are personal decisions, regardless of if it’s Justice Sotomayor or any other justice on the bench. … They should be given the space and freedom to make that decision,” Jean-Pierre said. 

Critics would presumably like Biden to replace Sotomayor with a younger liberal justice. Hasan noted in a recent opinion piece in the Guardian that Sotomayor has had paramedics called to her home. In The Atlantic, journalist and commentator Josh Barro wrote: “The cowardice in speaking up about Sotomayor — a diabetic who has in some instances traveled with a medic — is part of a broader insanity in the way that the Democratic Party thinks about diversity and representation.” 

It is unclear if Sotomayor has actually traveled with a medic. The Huffington Post article both Hasan and Barro cite states that she may have merely been traveling with medical equipment — something people with type 1 diabetes of all ages, like Sotomayor, need to live long, healthy lives. 

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition in which the pancreas stops producing insulin. Unlike the more common type 2 diabetes, it cannot be addressed by lifestyle changes like diet and exercise. People with type 1 diabetes will need to take insulin for the rest of their lives. Type 1 diabetes typically develops in childhood, although adults can develop it too. Sotomayor was diagnosed when she was 7 years old. 

People with type 1 diabetes do not necessarily lead significantly shorter lives than people without, according to Joshua Vieth, director of research at JDRF. 

JDRF is an international diabetes research and advocacy organization, and one of the largest in the United States focused exclusively on type 1 diabetes. JDRF was formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation but changed its name to initials in 2012 to better reflect that there are many adults now living with type 1 diabetes.

While there is some research on differences in lifespan for people with type 1 diabetes, the research is already dated. It is difficult to say whether people with type 1 diabetes today necessarily live shorter lives than those without the condition.

“That research is developing, with a significant improvement in the devices we’re talking about and the care we’re talking about even over the last five or 10 years,” Vieth said. 

According to Vieth, the key to living a long, healthy life with type 1 diabetes is adequate access to the right insulin, the right insulin delivery system and access to health care more generally. As a member of the highest court, Sotomayor has all of the appropriate resources. 

“There are examples of people with type 1 diabetes running in marathons, playing in the NFL, competing in the Olympics, even competing on American Ninja Warrior recently. With access to therapies and the new devices that are on the market, there is nothing that should stop somebody living with type 1 diabetes from leading an extremely active, healthy life,” he said. 

Gail DeVore, 63, lives in Denver. She helped push Colorado to become the first state to put a cap on insulin prices in 2021 because she feared what would happen if she could not afford insulin. 

“People that can’t afford insulin? They die. The diabetic community mourns all of those people. … When people ask me about my work, they ask me what I am most afraid of. And I tell them it is not being able to afford insulin, period,” DeVore said. 

People with type 1 diabetes who do not have adequate insulin and adequate insulin management may experience complications like kidney disease, eye disease and neuropathy – weakness and numbness in the hands and feet. If they do not have adequate insulin for long enough, they will die. 

DeVore was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 11, a decade later than Sotomayor. She remembers the day vividly. 

“My mom started crying, and the doctor told my parents together that I wouldn’t get to see 40,” DeVore told The 19th. 

Due to advances in medical technology, this did not turn out to be the case. DeVore remembers getting her first “giant” blood glucose monitor in the 1980s and transitioning from one beef-based injection of insulin per day to a more refined regimen.

“I call it the Dark Ages. We didn’t know anything that was going on, other than that we were putting insulin into our bodies,” she said. 

Today, DeVore runs a small business that helps nonprofits with database design and implementation. She also plays in a bluegrass band called Rocky Mountain Jewgrass. With adequate access to insulin and health care, she doesn’t feel like she has any limitations. 

“If there weren’t regulations, I probably would be an astronaut,” she joked. “I’m active. I’m in the mountains a lot. I go up there alone.”

As an older adult with diabetes, DeVore is furious about the demands for Sotomayor to retire. Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court was a big moment for many in the diabetes and broader disability communities. 

“Every person I know in the diabetes community celebrated. It was extraordinary, to show the world it’s not a limitation. It’s a disability. As long as we take care of ourselves, we can do great things,” DeVore said. 

DeVore does not believe, as many critics do, that Sotomayor’s situation is similar to that of the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Ginsburg died in 2020 at age 87 after having pancreatic cancer for over a decade. Her death allowed then-President Donald Trump to appoint a third justice during his term, creating the current 6-3 conservative majority that has overturned the federal right to an abortion, banned race-based affirmative action and issued a ruling LGBTQ+ advocates say marks a significant loss of anti-discrimination protection. 

To DeVore, type 1 diabetes is “a whole different animal” from cancer. 

“Why should she [retire]? People I went to high school with are older than her, so come on,” DeVore said. 

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Joshua Vieth’s name.