Skip to content

Raquel Montoya-Lewis Quotes

born 1968 United States

United States
Judges
Lawyers

Random Raquel Montoya-Lewis quote

18 quotes

No one wants to see a child stay in foster care one minute longer than is absolutely necessary to ensure her safety.

Every day there is something that makes me reflect that this is a historical appointment that is meaningful to other people.

I became really interested in how the law functions as this underpinning of our society and codifies the ways we interact with each other in ways that we don't even really think about.

All children deserve stability and most agree that a child in foster care lacks stability.

There is no doubt in my mind and in my experience that the therapeutic approach benefits the individual, and therefore the community, far more.

Despite the efforts of many tribal judges and the good intentions of state courts, we find ourselves continually justifYing our existence and our skill sets.

I'm not in this because I want to be in the history books as someone who was the first. That matters, and it matters to a lot of people. But what really matters to me is that I not be the last.

My view has been since the moment I decided to apply for this position, I'm going to be who I am.

Every single family in my years of tribal court work had a story to tell about that.

The assumption has been, throughout my entire career, that because I am not white that I am not fair or I am not neutral.

I’m not afforded the presumption of neutrality or objectivity that my colleagues are — I have to prove that I am neutral or objective.

“I believe my role is to listen carefully, with neutrality and fairness, and to apply the law regardless of my personal, subjective beliefs.”

I've had people say, ‘You don't look like a judge,’ and they've said that in lots of different ways. [But] I do look like a Supreme Court justice, because I am one.

It is, however, enormously difficult to provide court and social services to these children and families when funding is minimal at best or non-existent at worst.

If Gov. [Jay] Inslee or the public doesn't embrace that, that's OK, but I can't pretend to be someone other than who I am.

I know what that intergenerational trauma looks like and what the consequences are. If I have the ability in this position to give a voice to that story, I'm going to take it.

“I was raised to remember that I come from those who survived.”

I don't know that there's ever been a drum group or those sounds in that building. But there are now, and I wanted to make a public statement that we're here — and that I belong there.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Raquel Montoya-Lewis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.