Sonia Sotomayor was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents and was the first person in her family to go to college. She went to Princeton and then to Yale for law school. She is the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court and on Monday, April 11, 2016, Sonia Sotomayor came to visit Rutgers University. The doors opened at 2pm and when I got there a few minutes before there was already a long line of people waiting to get into the Rutgers Athletic Center. My seat was in the first row of the mezzanine right above the press box and I had a pretty good view of the stage.
After waiting until 3pm for the event to start, Sonia Sotomayor finally came out. The crowd went pretty crazy. People were clapping and screaming and many people gave her a standing ovation. Professor Ruth Mandel, Director of the Eagleton Institute, was hosting the event and asked the first questions.
Professor Mandel asked about the inspiration for title of Justice Sotomayor’s book, My Beloved World. Justice Sotomayor said that the title comes from the poem “To Puerto Rico (I Return)” by José Gautier Benítez. And when she finished writing the book she thought “I love my life.” Justice Sotomayor said that everything that had happened, “both the positive and negative experiences of [her] life” had created her and had brought her to where she is today.
The next question was about what from her past and her earliest days has stuck with Justice Sotomayor throughout her life. In response she said, “I have a Puerto Rican heart because my culture is ingrained in me.” She also said that, upon her nomination, President Obama asked her to stay connected to her culture and to her community. She responded that she didn’t know how to do anything else.
Tying into the question of her relationship to her community, Professor Mandel asked how being a Supreme Court Justice has impacted her relationship with her friends and family. Justice Sotomayor said that is has changed some parts of her relationships but that she and her friends and family work to try to keep it as close to the same as possible. She stressed that it was all about communication and that talking about it with friends and family makes it easier to keep things close to the same as they were before her appointment to the Supreme Court.
Justice Sotomayor also said that “all work has some inherent value” and that “anything you do with honor can be put to good use.” She stressed that there is nothing wrong with making money but that it is important to give back to the community.
Professor Mandel then asked about how she views her role as a judge differently now that she is a Supreme Court Justice as compared to when she was a judge in the lower courts. She said that being a Supreme Court Justice said, “It is much, much harder to be a Supreme Court Justice.” As a judge in the lower court there was always someone above her that could fix her worst mistakes, but as a Supreme Court Justice she is “part of the final word.” And while Congress can fix some things if a mistake is made, Congress cannot fix everything. She said that “making a decision is much, much harder” because they are “announcing a winner” and one side will feel vindicated by their decision and the other side will feel as though they have lost or that something has been taken away from them. Justice Sotomayor also said that the Supreme Court takes “only the hard cases…where reasonable people have disagreed” which only makes being on the Supreme Court that much harder.
When asked about diversity on the Supreme Court, Justice Sotomayor said that the Supreme Court represents the country and “to be able to represent all of those people it’s helpful when the Justices have…as much and as varied an experience base as the country has.” She went on to say that diverse opinions allow the Court to see cases from different perspectives and see how it will affect different groups of people.
After questions from Professor Mandel, students were able to ask questions to the Supreme Court Justice. One student asked about Justice Sotomayor’s feelings about being sworn in and becoming one of the most powerful Latinas in the country. About being sworn in, Justice Sotomayor said, “All I could think about was My God thank you for this gift.” She said, “I have lived and reached something far, far beyond any dreams I ever had and so that sense of being blessed was very real to me that day.” She also said that she tries to push the idea of her power out of her mind because it does not really have an impact on her everyday life and that “you have to live doing what you think is the right thing to do at the time.”
Justice Sotomayor was a great inspirational speaker and, despite the immense power she holds in the United States, she is very down to earth and connected to her community. She said that she always asks herself two questions before she goes to sleep: “What did I learn new today and … How did I help or extend an act of kindness to someone.”
About a third of the way through the program, Justice Sotomayor stood and walked into the audience stands. She said that it made her security detail nervous, but that ever since she was young she has disliked sitting still. All she asked was that no one stood up while she was walking among the audience because it would cause her security to take action. Sonia Sotomayor is a great inspirational speaker and someone that people should look to as a role model not only because of her success, but also because of her character.
Some notable quotes:
“Don’t do any work that you’re not passionate about.”
“It’s not a sin to make money … It is a sin if you do those things without giving back to your community … without using some of those resources … in helping public interest activities.”
“I have found that if you do good things, people will come and help you do them.”
“You can value anyone who does a service for you.”
“I don’t think that I’ve ever lived my life feeling pressure from others. Pressure is always inside of me. In that way, anything I’ve ever wanted to achieve or do, I’ve done because it was a sight I set for myself.”
“You can’t live your life for your parents.”
“I do what I think is important to do, and that which I think makes a contribution.”
Photo obtained from: https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/sonia-sotomayor.jpg?quality=75&strip=color&w=1100