Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently returned to her native borough, the Bronx, to speak at the nonprofit Bronx Defenders. Her Q&A, described in The New Yorker, gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse into her life and the Supreme Court:
Sotomayor says she prefers to be called "Sonia from the Bronx."
As a girl, she was inspired by watching Perry Mason, including how the TV show's perpetually losing district attorney, Hamilton Burger, took pride in doing the right thing.
A cheese line at a reception facilitated Sotomayor becoming an assistant district attorney for New York County: that's where she bumped into famed DA Robert Morgenthau. “You may have your career all planned out, but when a chance comes you have to be flexible enough to jump.”
The first Supreme Court justice she met was Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
In response to a question about whether she uses an empowering mantra, Sotomayor said that, occasionally, work will drive her to sincerely say "Oh, my God, help me!"
She puts a positive spin on things: Her confirmation hearings were "horrible," but the one-on-one interviews with senators gave her insights into the rest of the country, such as the importance of water rights out west.
In the same vein, she said that while one of her colleagues on the Court sometimes "drives her crazy," she works to get along with everyone, since "we're going to be there for a long time." [NYer]
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