Justice Sotomayor: Inequality Could Trigger ‘Unrest’ In U.S.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks about her best-selling memoir, "My Beloved World," during an appearance at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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In a conversation on civil rights on Thursday, Surpeme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor offered an ominous forecast for America amid ever-rising income inequality.

Addressing the American Constitution Society in Washington, Sotomayor warned that “[a]s the wealth difference grows, we’re going to see, I suspect, many of the problems other countries have, the unrest other countries have,” the National Law Journal reported Thursday.

The remark was a response to her fellow speaker, civil rights leader Theodore Shaw, who said that preserving America’s social mobility is “one of the most, if not the most, challenging issues of the 21st century.”

Sotomayor listed factors contributing to the country’s wealth gap, focusing particularly on the rising cost of education: “[T]here’s a lot more of kids … across the spectrum who no longer have the hope to attend the schools we did.”

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