Search

In 2016, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a stunning legal opinion that challenged the Supreme Court's ruling in Utah v. Strieff and marked a watershed moment for her voice of dissent. In this essay, I argue that Justice Sotomayor's Strieff dissent was animated by a praxis of rebellious knowledge production – disruptive moves of legal opinion writing that rework interpretive traditions of context, authority, and lived experience to center an episteme of race-consciousness in the law. This study points to the possibilities of outsider jurisprudence as a rhetorical praxis of legal opinion writing and illuminates the democratic promise of Sotomayor's judicial voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]