Her Honor Sonia Sotomayor, whose face I would wear on a t-shirt, released her long awaited memoir, My Beloved World yesterday. Cheesy title aside, the book promises to take us on a journey from her childhood in a Bronx housing project to her current reality as my second favorite Supreme Court Justice. The fact that Sotomayor wrote the memoir while serving in the Supreme Court of the United States makes me feel like the biggest fucking slacker. It would make me so sad if I stopped to think about it, but I have to finish this bag of Reduced Fat Barbecue Lay’s before the season one finale of Scandal, so I’ve got plans, too.
But first, Sotomayor! On how to be stubborn, and therefore, successful, Sotomayor told 60 Minutes:
I am the most obstinate person you will ever meet. I have a streak of stubbornness in me that I think is what has accounted for some of my success in life. There is some personal need to persevere, to fight the fight. And if you just try and be stubborn about trying you can do what you set your mind to.
She went on to share that watching Perry Mason inspired her to pursue a career as an attorney, after she was told her Type 1 diabetes would block her from becoming a police officer — her first choice. See, I’m already fascinated!
She goes on to acknowledge (yet again) the roll affirmative action played in her life as the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants. She wouldn’t comment on the upcoming Fisher v. University of Texas case, the one where a white 22-year-old Abigail Fisher is suing the University of Texas and challenging if the consideration of race in admissions is constitutional. (Never mind the fact that Fisher didn’t have the grades or the SAT score to get into UT in the first place, but whatever.)
The affirmative action of today is very different than it was when I was going to school,” she said. “And each school does it in a different way. I can’t pass judgment on whether there’s a role for it or not without it being seen as I’m making a comment on an existing case. But I do know that, for me, it was a door opener that changed the course of my life.
I’m excited to read Sotomayor’s memoir, and only partly because I want to see what she says about Scalia and Thomas, and if she ever did get to host one of those “single ladies fiestas” with Justice Kagan. We’re probably gonna have to wait until she retires to read about the really good stuff, but you know it’s gonna be juicy.