Judge Sotomayor's top 50 opinions Tom Smith

Here are Judge Sotomayor's 50 most important opinions, as judged by the PreCYdent algorithm.  (See also pdf version below.  Our site is running slow these days because we need another server, so if you just want the list, the pdf is probably quicker.)  Our algorithm judges importance in something like the way that Google judges the importance of webpages. For you geeks out there, that means we use a modified Kleinberg algorithm with some special sauces.  So it's not just a matter of how often a case is cited, but how important are the cases that do the citing, among many other factors.

Some of the cases are cases in which Sotomayor was on the panel, but did not write the opinion.  One could skip those or not as one saw fit.  In any event, this list gives interested parties a place to start in looking at the cases J. Sotomayor has written that have had the most influence on federal law.  Since the law is to a signigicant degree an autonomous domain, this doesn't necessarily correspond to what is the most controversial or in the news.

Download __ PreCYdent - Opinions search printable version