Justice Sotomayor’s first written opinion in the case, Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, No. 08-678, marked the first use of the term `undocumented immigrant,'
It’s an apparent first for the U.S. Supreme Court, the term “undocumented immigrant” is now part of the legal lexicon for the nation’s highest court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor used the term, along with “undocumented worker” in an opinion on the case Mohawk Industries, Inc. vs. Carpenter.
Justice Sotomayor’s choice of words is being hailed by immigrant advocates. On ImmigrationProf Blog, University of California law professor Kevin Johnson wrote that with her first written Supreme Court decision – which by the way focused on a civil procedure issue – the new justice “already has made a difference”
Johnson writes that “the choice of terminology — aliens, illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, people — matters in the discourse over immigration. Consequently, by employing a more neutral term, Justice Sotomayor has added significantly to the Supreme Court’s dialogue on immigration, which is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future.”
