Some days, after hearing a Supreme Court decision announced, Justice Sonia Sotomayor goes into her chambers, closes the door and cries.
“There were days when I would come into my office after the case was announced and I would close the door and cry,” Justice Sotomayor told the crowd at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute, where the awards ceremony was held, on Friday. “There were days like those, and there will be more.”
The comments about the challenges of being a liberal on a conservative-dominated court came at the end of a public conversation with a friend and law school classmate, Martha Minow, a former dean of Harvard Law School and human rights scholar.
While expressing dissatisfaction with some of the Supreme Court's decisions, the justices also created an air of optimism that could signal more conservative victories at the end of the term, when the court's most high-profile cases will be handed down, and they called for long-term advancement of the values ​​they see as guiding principles: equality, diversity and justice.
“There are moments when I feel really, really sad,” she said, without giving specific examples. “Certainly, even I have moments when I feel hopeless. We all feel that way. But you have to acknowledge it, accept it, shed the tears, wipe them away and get back up.”
Decisions are still pending in dozens of cases, including those on abortion, guns, free speech for social media companies, the regulatory power of government agencies and whether former President Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
On a sunny spring day, hundreds of people gathered outdoors under tents to hear Justice Sotomayor, some of whose young children carried Puerto Rican flags in tribute to her roots, as she is the first Latina justice to serve on the Supreme Court, and whose parents are Puerto Rican.
The judge said he first planned a career as a detective not because of his interactions with police officers in the public housing projects he grew up in the Bronx, but because of the influence of fictional girl detective Nancy Drew.
“I think Nancy Drew has become a kind of role model,” Justice Sotomayor said.
It inspired me to help others, to seek justice, and ultimately to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the legal system and the power of judges — an understanding that became clearer when I watched lower court judges in the South ignore cultural norms and uphold the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
“They were brave people who believed in the power of law to create a more perfect union. I believe that too,” she said.
Justice Sotomayor spoke with great warmth about her mother, who raised her alone after her father died when she was 9. She said her mother originally wanted her to become a journalist, to travel and interview people. She recalled that as a child, her mother could not afford to buy books and newspapers, so she had to pick through trash cans to learn more about the world.
Justice Sotomayor said that as a high school student, she watched her mother go back to school to become a registered nurse, which she said was an act of great determination.
“If I am half the woman my mother was, then I am content, because she was a remarkable woman,” Justice Sotomayor said.
She also credits a series of mentors who helped her find her way as she rose from a young lawyer to a district judge, the Court of Appeals and finally the Supreme Court.
She said when she was approached to join the Supreme Court, she was hesitant because she was worried about whether she would have enough time to spend with her mother, who had been diagnosed with memory loss.
Her mother's response was swift and clear: “She stopped me and said, 'Don't do this because of me. You're taking away the dreams I've spent my whole life building for you. I wanted you to be the best person you can be.'
She said during her years at the court, she focused on mentoring, encouraging and inspiring young people, from small children in Head Start programs to adults.
“And by the way, if I were to say something to the kids in this room, and I consider anyone under 20 to be a kid,” she said, “but if any of you remember what I said and are inspired to do something differently, to be more proactive in making the world a better place, then my legacy will outlast my own, because I'm going to leave this world and I'm going to leave a legacy that really matters.”
