Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor Read Free

“an assertive and direct questioner,” and when it came to the second claim, its panel found no bias in her work. 10
    It also would become evident that Sotomayor, more than other judges and justices, would be communicating to multiple audiences. In 2001 she was speaking at a conference about Latinos, largely attended by Latinos. In that setting, her remark about the value of a “wise Latina” attracted no attention. Only when a broader audience read her words were her motives questioned.
    A few years after the Berkeley appearance Sotomayor observed in a speech to Cornell University students that the differences minorities face do not “magically disappear” after an Ivy League education or professional success. “We people of color have problems that we struggle with throughout our careers, throughout our lives.” She said that it sometimes seemed as if she lived a charmed life, with her Manhattan apartment and opportunities that brought her into the company of Aretha Franklin, Bernadette Peters, and Robert De Niro. Yet, she told the students, “despite everything I’ve accomplished, I’m always looking behind my shoulder, wondering if I measure up.” 11
    If the Berkeley speech is viewed in the broader context of her other speeches to student groups, perhaps what one sees most is Sotomayor’s ongoing drive to define herself in a world where she breaks the mold. Asked about that effort in the context of the Berkeley speech, she said, years after becoming a justice, “It’s very hard for people who haven’t lived my life to know what it’s like to have your experiences looked down upon, to be viewed as inferior, to be viewed as not smart enough. You need to affirm that you have value.”
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    She would, however, have to eat her words about the “wise Latina” during her 2009 Senate confirmation hearings. It was painful for Sotomayor but necessary in the view of her White House supporters. “I want to state up front and unequivocally and without doubt,” she said early in the hearings, “I do not believe any ethnic, racial, or gender group has an advantage in sound judging.” 12
    Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and an important member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, put Democrats on notice within days of President Obama’s nomination that he would be seeking an apology for her sentiment that a Latina would reach a better conclusion than a man. For him, she delivered, testifying, “I regret that I have offended some people. I believe that my life demonstrates that that was not my intent to leave the impression that some have taken from my words.”
    That appeased Graham, but not other Republicans. Senator Jeff Sessions, a former federal prosecutor from Alabama, said that the “wise Latina” comment revealed a distaste for the “American ideal” that all judges should be able to “put aside their personal biases and prejudices.” 13
    Sotomayor rejected that characterization and continued to minimize her original sentiment. “My rhetorical device failed,” she said. “It failed because it left an impression that I believe something that I don’t … It left an impression that has offended people and has left an impression that I didn’t intend.”
    She said she was speaking only of how a person’s varied experiences would naturally affect her view: “Life experiences have to influence you. We’re not robots who listen to evidence and don’t have feelings. We have to recognize those feelings and put them aside. That’s what my speech was saying.”
    Most Senate Republicans were not satisfied. Outside the Beltway, however, the “wise Latina” phrase would take off in 2009. Cartoonists seized it, and not at Sotomayor’s expense. Roll Call ’s R. J. Matson combined it with Sotomayor’s childhood passion for Nancy Drew detective stories to depict The Case of the Wise Old Latina , with Nancy Drew pursuing the “Hardly Boys.” On the mock book cover, the