There has been much made of Sonia Sotomayor’s life, her Puerto Rican background, her modest, if not poor, childhood, her mother, what her Latina-ness means to her, her involvement in civil rights organizations, etc.  It’s both a big part of why Obama picked her to serve on the Supreme Court and will form the basis of the attacks launched against her – it already has.  Rush Limbaugh has likened Sonia Sotomayor to David Duke, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Much can be said about how these attacks/critiques are disingenuous, mean, racist, sexist and offensive.   Of course each of us is informed by our past, our experiences, the advantages and disadvantages that we have experienced.  It’s just that you notice how the disadvantages more than the advantages shape who you are.

But for the moment I’ll leave to others such as my colleague Patricia Williams to address this aspect of the opposition to Sotomayor’s nomination.  Instead I want to focus on what her life history – including but not reduced to her nomination to the Supreme Court – has meant for Latina law students.

One of the things I enjoy most about teaching at Columbia Law School is the diversity of students we have.  Our JD students come from everywhere, and have every possible background.  Many of them see themselves mirrored in the faculty and on the federal judiciary, but a good number of them don’t.   Those who don’t know they don’t, and it often takes a leap of faith or just dogged perseverence for them to feel like they belong at a place like Columbia and that they might one day be in the front of the room teaching or up on the bench judging.   Sonia Sotomayor is fully aware of the burden she carries as a role model for female students, Latina/o students, and students who didn’t come from privileged backgrounds.  We’ve talked about this over dinner.

In this regard, what follows is a letter written by a former Columbia Law Student (with her permission) to Judge Sotomayor after her nomination to the Supreme Court was announced.  Judge Sotomayor has taught a course at Columbia on Federal Court advocacy for a number of years, which students have loved, and she was the speaker at the Columbia Law School graduation in 2004.  This student copied us on the letter she sent to Judge Sotomayor:

Dear Hon. Sonia Sotomayor:

Here I sit watching you stand proudly next to President Obama as he announces your nomination to the Supreme Court and I am so incredibly proud and happy for you and your family (especially your mom!).  God bless you and keep you always.

I was one of your externs back in 2003 and was so humbled to have been chosen to work with you.  Thank you so much for the opportunity you gave me.  You impressed me so much with your integrity, wisdom and humility.  Your heart was always true.  Back then I was also co-chair of Columbia Law School’s graduating class of 2004 and when we discussed who would be our commencement speaker, I could not fathom anyone but you speaking and inspiring our class to reach their God-given potential.  If anyone could make them believe in their dreams, it would be you.  And only you deserved that honor (or so I thought).  After nominating you, the decision to invite you to be our commencement speaker was unanimous and it was one of the proudest moments of my law school career.  Thank you.

Since graduating, I have been working for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under the U.S. Department of the Treasury in New York.  I recently became a Senior Attorney here and am grateful to dedicate my career to federal public service.  So much has happened in the last five to six years.  I got married and have a one-year old son, Isaac.

Undoubtedly, you will change the course of American history.  That goes without saying.  But there are also so many individuals out there, including me, whose lives will be forever molded by today’s events.  While I externed for you, I lived in a public housing project in Rockaway Park, Queens — I had lived there since the age of 13 with my mother and younger brother.  My family and I were poor and constantly struggling to survive.  I never let anyone keep me down or hold me back from what I believed my path to be, but I hope you don’t mind that I will “use” you as my personal inspiration to move forward and fulfill my life’s purpose (whatever that may be).  Thank you again.

Lastly, I know that you may not remember me.  I don’t consider myself a very memorable person, which was one of the reasons I hesitated to write to you.  I also felt that you had other, more important things to do and wouldn’t have time for me.  But if I don’t write to you now, I would probably never get the chance to thank you.  You will always be in my prayers and I am looking forward to hearing people call you Justice Sotomayor.

Sincerely,

Ancris Munoz Ramdhanie
Columbia Law School Class of 2004

This is why Sonia Sotomayor’s background is important.

From Columbia Law School Professor Patricia Williams, via The Daily Beast:

President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor just plain fills me with delight. She’s brilliant, she’s fair, she’s an inspiration on many, many levels. That she is the first Puerto Rican or Latina nominee, appointed by the first Afro-Hawaiian-Kansan-Kenyan-American president, just makes this moment all the more extraordinary in our history.

But the trajectory of Judge Sotomayor’s career owes much to the collective efforts of the civil-rights movement, in its most encompassing sense. Now 54, she came of age when doors were just opening to allow significant numbers of women, Latinos, or any other sort of minority into the legal profession. I’m three years older than Sotomayor, and when I started teaching in 1980, there were six women of color in the entire United States in legal academia—four African Americans, one Asian American, and one Latina. Our numbers in the judiciary were just as sparse. So Sotomayor is among that generation of often lonely but extraordinary and persistent pioneers.

I’m confident she’ll be confirmed. At the same time, I am bracing myself for the predicted battle, some degree of which I’m already seeing in the media—to wit, commentary about her being “strident,” or “bullying,” when all examples of such seem to fall well within what any male judge would be embraced for as “decisive” rather than “opinionated. ”

On Tuesday morning I was listening to The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC radio and a lawyer called in to complain that Sotomayor once told counsel that his brief was one of the worst she had seen and verged on the unprofessional. The caller fumed that this proved her unsuitability to serve on the highest court.

I’m sorry, but this felt like pure sexism to me. Who would ever question a male judge’s authority to declare that a brief was below par? What does it imply about her perceived credibility as “judge” that her indisputably measured declaration of substandard performance (no yelling, no posturing, just a simple declarative sentence) becomes turned into an indictment of her “temperament”?

Another thing I’m struck by is how much the media confine her “experience”—as though it were not a source of legitimate, professional information. They keep using the word “experience” in an entirely romantic way—like George Jefferson, “moving on up” from the cotton fields of the South Bronx. But the compelling weight of her experience is revealed in her résumé: summa cum laude from Princeton, editor of Yale Law Review. This much alone is no easy feat. It’s a unique and extraordinary accomplishment for anyone: male, female, white, Latina, rich, or poor.

But also she has a variety of practical experience under her belt, experience as a prosecutor, experience as trial judge, experience as corporate lawyer, experience as an appellate judge. Very few on the Supreme Court have ever enjoyed this breadth of experience.

So rather than localizing this as something internal to her—some kind of Kumbaya, “walking in the moccasins of the downtrodden” thing—let’s get a grip and remember that “experience” means her résumé. And when it comes down to the objective litany of her accomplishments, Judge Sonia Sotomayor is both a legal powerhouse and an American dream come true.

Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by President Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court, has taught a course on Federal Appellate Court advocacy at Columbia for several years.  While President Obama’s adjunct teaching job at the University of Chicago is often cited as one of his credentials, little mention has been made of Judge Sotomayor’s teaching experience.  Hmmm.

Students who have taken her course at Columbia have raved about her, her willingness to mentor them, push them, and take them seriously.  Here are excerpts from student evaluations of her course:

- Judge Sotomayor is extremely accomplished, interesting and knowledgeable.  She is one of the top judges at the 2nd Circuit, and to get to sit in a class with her and just a handful of students is an incredible experience.

- Judge Sotomayor is an amazing judge, and person, and I feel privileged to have had a chance to learn from her.

- Judge Sotomayor is clearly brilliant and it’s great to be in class with her. She is really exceptional. It is interesting to hear the principles she applies to appellate adjudication. This was the best class I have taken at Columbia.

- As a student of the law, I found Judge Sotomayor’s lectures to be very interesting–she can offer a viewpoint of the law from the perspective of a prosecutor, a private litigator, a district court judge, and an appellate court judge.

- Judge Sotomayor really seems to enjoys teaching this class—and mentoring young lawyers generally—and it shows in her enthusiasm and preparation. This class is one of the great privileges of Columbia law school.

Columbia’s Dean for Social Justice Programs, Ellen Chapnick, was on CNN this morning talking about Judge Sotomayor as a friend and colleague, link here.