Salsa dancing, coffee and Yale experience among topics at justices' visit to alma mater
Yale University’s Sterling Law Building. Image from Shutterstock.
Three Supreme Court justices who graduated from Yale Law School returned to their alma mater last weekend where they talked about their experiences at the school and answered questions about everything from salsa dancing to coffee.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. received the school’s Award of Merit and spoke with law professor Kate Stith on Saturday afternoon in an event that was streamed live online. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the National Law Journal (sub. req.) covered their remarks.
Thomas said he was a “cynical and negative” law student. In his memoir, My Grandfather’s Son, Thomas had said he believed affirmative action had given his law degree less value. Yale meant one thing for white graduates and another for blacks, he wrote. But on Saturday, Thomas said he wasn’t thinking straight during his time at Yale.
“I must admit I did not get as much out of the law school as I should have, and that was simply because of my attitude,” Thomas said.
Sotomayor said she also “didn’t know how to take advantage of law school,” and she graduated with a “deep sense of humility.”
On another topic, Sotomayor said she learned to salsa dance when around the age of 50, according to the NLJ account and a separate story by the Washington Post. “I cannot keep a beat to save my life,” Sotomayor said. “But I have a facility that some of my colleagues would find very strange: I can follow.”
Sotomayor’s admission spurred a response from Alito. “It’s a revelation to know that Sonia likes to follow,” he said. “I think we’re going to start dancing in the conference room.”
Asked about his favorite books, Alito quipped that he keeps two inspirational books by his bedside: My Grandfather’s Son and My Beloved World (Sotomayor’s memoir).
The justices even weighed in on their coffee preferences, according to the NLJ. Alito likes bold coffee. Sotomayor said she had to give up coffee, though her friends still send her coffee from Puerto Rico. Thomas, on the other hand, is “not a connoisseur”; he drinks Folger’s and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
