Mike Hall
Justice Sotomayor at the UW-Madison's Shannon Hall with two of her former clerks, Lindsey Powell (left) and Robert Yablon.
When Sonia Sotomayor was a child her mother called her “Ají,” a type of hot pepper.
“I never sat still,” the U.S. Supreme Court justice told a packed crowd at UW-Madison’s Shannon Hall Thursday. “I call it curiosity. I’m still like that. I like moving around.”
So within 15 minutes of starting her presentation — this year’s lecture in an annual series honoring former Congressman Robert W. Kastenmeier, a UW Law School graduate — Sotomayor left the podium to shake hands and greet audience members. She warned people to stay in their seats so as not to alarm the security detail trailing her.
“They’re here to protect me from myself,” she joked. “They don’t like me to do this, but I do it anyway.”
While she worked the room, Sotomayor continued to answer questions posed by two of her former law clerks, Lindsey Powell, now an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and Robert Yablon, who teaches at the UW Law School. Her warm demeanor and obvious passion for people and the law lent an unusually intimate feel to the discussion.
On the court since 2009, Sotomayor said she remains in awe of her position, but feels both blessed and cursed. “There is a burden,” she said.
“The work I’m doing affects so many people. That’s something I never forget. Someone wins … and someone loses. That burden feels very heavy to me.”
She said she had not anticipated how hard decision-making would be on the high court. She noted that she sometimes tries to identify the parties in the case during oral argument so that she keeps in mind the human — as well as legal — ramifications of the court’s rulings. And she told the audience, filled with local attorneys, judges and state Supreme Court justices, including Shirley Abrahamson and Patience Roggensack, to have empathy for all those affected. “Whenever you’re happy about one of our outcomes, think about the other side.”
Sotomayor, who calls herself a “citizen lawyer,” said while she cannot discuss the internal deliberations of the court, she thinks it is important for her to inform the public about how the court works and to change its perception as a “distant and unknowable institution.”
“The court is a mystery to a lot of people,” she said. “It’s not like the other branches. We don’t have cameras in the courtroom.” She believes it’s important to demystify the court by showing the human side of justices to the public — “that we carry with us the backgrounds and experiences… [that] certainly inform the process and discussions among ourselves.”
Powell asked her to comment on the value of diversity on the court. Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, grew up poor in the south Bronx. She said being Latina is one of her identities, but she is a human first. “Everyone has strengths, weaknesses. We learn from experience. Every experience makes us a piece of who we are.
“The more diversity in professional and life experience,” she added, “the more fulsome the conversation will be about the law.”
Sounding at times like a motivational speaker, she urged audience members to get involved in their communities, volunteer at their local church or school and mentor young people. “Inspiring people to do better” is one of her priorities, she said. “People should help make the world better.”
She herself volunteers at an afterschool program, and some of her clerks have followed her there as well.
Sotomayor was asked about the mentors in her own life. She said that former Justice John Paul Stevens “changed the course of my life on the court.” Specifically, she said, he taught her to trust her gut to identify cases she thought warranted attention, even if they stood little chance of being taken up by the majority.
“He gave me the courage to understand that some things just have to be thought about, discussed, considered,” she said.
For those seeking mentors in their professional lives, she advised them to become indispensable to those with whom they aspired to work and learn from.
When asked what the U.S. justice system does well and not so well, Sotomayor noted that most judges strive to be fair and impartial. “The little corruption we have is a standard for the rest of the world,” she said. But she was critical that low-income people involved in civil cases do not receive legal representation from the state. “I have a difficult time explaining why we don’t provide lawyers to people,” she said. “We have an unequal representation of people in our court system.” And that, she added, is an “injustice” that warrants more attention.
She said the sudden death last year of Justice Antonin Scalia has left “a big hole in the court.” The court is quieter, not as lively, she said. On a personal level, she said she regretted that the two, both native New Yorkers, never made it to the Yankees game they had talked about: “If there are special things you want to do in life, don’t put it off.”
