Sotomayor: Being a role model is 'the most valuable thing I do'
Justice Sonia Sotomayor hopes she will be a great justice, writing opinions that will “last the ages.”
But that doesn’t always happen, Sotomayor tells the New York Times. “More importantly, it’s only one measure of meaning in life. To me, the more important one is my values and my impact on people who feel inspired in any way by me.”
She hopes her personal story proves inspirational—in which she rises to become the court’s first Hispanic justice after a childhood in a poor household with an alcoholic father and a diagnosis of diabetes. Being a role model, she says, “is the most valuable thing I can do.”
Sotomayor spoke to the newspaper during a Chicago stop on the tour for her memoir, My Beloved World. According to the story, the release of the book “suggests that she has broader ambitions than her colleagues, to play a larger and more personal role on the public stage.”
The Times says Sotomayor’s readings “have the air of celebratory happenings, attended by entire families, people who left work early to line up for tickets and acolytes who quote her recent interviews from memory.”
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Sotomayor notes one ‘over the edge’ criticism from a fellow justice, but there’s no hard feelings”
Name of source article corrected on Feb. 5.
