Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor gets personal in chat with MSU students

EAST LANSING — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor revealed some of the person behind the gavel, speaking candidly about how her life experiences have affected her judicial outlook during a talk Monday at Michigan State University.

Sotomayor, the first Latina appointed to the nation's highest court, cracked jokes and gave career advice during her visit to campus. At one point, Sotomayor reflected on her father, noting that he was unable to overcome his alcoholism despite his love for his family.

"Even as a judge ... I understand that good people do bad things," Sotomayor said. "Many people who do bad things are driven by needs or a lack of education or a lack of understanding that there are alternatives."

Sotomayor avoided sounded regretful, adding that it's impossible to know how her life would have turned out had her father not died of heart failure when she was nine years old.

"I do believe that the anger between him and my mother would have continued to grow and that that unhappiness would have affected the quality of my life and my brother's life and probably not for the good," Sotomayor said. 

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The justice addressed students and community members during an "academic welcome" ceremony at MSU's Breslin Center Monday morning before responding to pre-approved questions in a more intimate setting at a Kellogg Center conference room.

The event, staffed by U.S. marshals, had tight security, but that didn't stop Sotomayor from milling about the audience to pose for pictures with students.

"I'm kind of starstruck," said Solomon Kronberg, a freshman from Marquette, before asking the justice about events detailed in her memoir "My Beloved World." All first-year students received a copy of the book as part of MSU's "One Book, One Community" partnership with East Lansing. The public events also included a moderated discussion with the justice Sunday night at East Lansing High School.

Sotomayor spoke in a deliberate manner — a habit she said she picked up from choosing her words carefully when writing —  and shared anecdotes that feature in her book. That included the experience of feeling disparaged at a law firm's on-campus recruiting dinner, when a white male partner implied she only got into Yale Law School because of her Puerto Rican ancestry. Sotomayor ended up filing a complaint against the recruiter through Yale and negotiated a full apology from his firm, according to her memoir.

"I'm an affirmative action baby — it got me in the door," Sotomayor said, noting that she graduated near the top of her law school class. "Don't look at how I got in. Look at what I did."

Several students asked Sotomayor, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by then-President Barack Obama in 2009, about her childhood. She acknowledged the impact of growing up in New York city's public housing projects, but said it's a disservice to essentialize her upbringing.

"I am a woman who is Latina, who is a Catholic, who grew up poor but went to rich schools, Princeton and Yale," Sotomayor said. "Sonia is not just Latina. Sonia is amalgam of all those influences."

Contact Sarah Lehr at (517) 377-1056 or slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.