Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor almost pulled out of her confirmation process. She told students at her alma mater Princeton that the rigors of sustaining constant attacks as she worked her way through to a grueling season of Senate confirmation were hurtful and that she gave serious thought to bailing. She spoke Saturday with the stipulation that she would not address anything happening right now, in particular, the Gorsuch confirmation hearing. As it turned out, she ended up saying quite a lot.
Loud and clear
Anyone with ears could have inferred from Sotomayor's talk where she stands.
A central point regarded Hillary Clinton. According to ABC, The Supreme Court justice lamented the fact that the recent presidential election did not break the glass ceiling, allowing a woman to run things. She said female empowerment is an issue that "still pervades our society".
The hurt
The smiling Sotomayor of the confirmation hearings, it turns out, hid a grimace. The judge said she seriously considered getting out of the contest. "Lots of negative stuff was said about me," she told Princeton students. "And it hurt. I actually, seriously thought about pulling out of the process." The justice was speaking at a function sponsored by the university's Latino Alumni organization.
Justice Sotomayor, at Princeton, avoids any talk of Gorsuch - ABC News - https://t.co/55SWsngkjd via @ABC
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) April 2, 2017
A broader view
Sotomayor took occasion Saturday to suggest that it may be time for people in minorities to adopt a universal perspective and talk to everyone.
"We can't just talk to each other." This may be a small signal of a general impatience on all sides with what seems to be an unwillingness to acknowledge that ultimately we are one people. Without denying the specific needs of specific groups there is a commonality among all that needs to be considered if our concern is to move forward rather than backward.
The elephant in the room
The Gorsuch nomination was clearly the elephant in the room. By the time Sotomayor's talk was over silence was golden, Nobody had to ask where she stood. "There are judicial codes of conduct," she told her hearers. "We're not apolitical."
