In nominating Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the President has made good on his promise to appoint someone with stellar qualifications and intellect who understands the experiences of everyday Americans. Raised in a Bronx housing project by her widowed single mother, Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and has had a remarkable legal career as a prosecutor, a private attorney, a trial court judge, and an appellate judge.
As a young lawyer, I had the privilege of serving as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. Justice Blackmun was a wonderful man and a brilliant, dedicated jurist, but someone whose life had been rather insular before joining the Court. I remember him saying on many occasions how much he had learned from his colleagues on the bench and, particularly, from Justices Sandra Day O’Connor—a former state legislator and pioneering female jurist—and Thurgood Marshall—a civil rights hero who both experienced and helped defeat legal segregation. Justice Blackmun learned so much from these colleagues because they shared his intellect and commitment to fairness while bringing to the task a starkly different set of life experiences.
With few exceptions, the current Court is similarly insular and in need of new perspectives. With her remarkable credentials and inspiring life story, Judge Sotomayor promises to enrich the Court’s decision making for decades to come.
This post first appeared on The Stimulist. Read more at The Opportunity Agenda’s website.
