11. EQUALITY AND IDENTITY
1 . Senator Arlen Specter, a longtime Republican, switched his affiliation to the Democratic Party in April 2009, three months before the hearings.
2 . Arlen Specter statement, July 16, 2009, “Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, To Be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” before the Senate Judiciary Committee, July 13–16, 2009, Washington, D.C. Author attended the hearings; transcript available through multiple sources including U.S. Government Printing Office.
3 . When questioned about her role in the case, Justice Sotomayor declined to provide any information; a majority of her colleagues, however, related parts of the behind-the-scene events to the author. None of what transpired has previously been made public.
6 . Grutter v. Bollinger , 539 U.S. 306 (2003) andGratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003).
7 . League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry , 548 U.S. 399 (2006) andRicci v. DeStefano , 557 U.S. 557 (2009).
8 . Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 , 551 U.S. 701 (2007).
9 . Breyer was joined in his written dissenting opinion inParents Involved by Justices Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg.
11 . Details of claim found inAbigail Noel Fisher v. State of Texas , U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, amended complaint, April 17, 2008.
13 . Individual justices from both sides of the ideological divide revealed elements of the discussion and the evolution of draft opinions on the condition that information not be attributed to them. Not all of the justices would speak about the case, and Sotomayor herself declined to disclose private negotiations. Internal court documents are kept secret, so a full understanding of the give-and-take remained elusive. It was plain, however, that the case that was argued in October 2012 and seemed headed in one direction took a major turn because of Sotomayor. When asked by the author to describe the attitude Sotomayor had expressed in her draft opinion on the University of Texas program, justices intimated that it would be revealed in the then-pending Michigan affirmative action case. On April 22, 2014, whenSchuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action was handed down, Sotomayor’s strong feelings indeed were on display.
14 . Sotomayor,My Beloved World , 191.
15 . Justice Thomas included these numbers and other statistics in his concurring statement in theFisher case, citing an amicus curiae brief from Richard Sander et al.
16 . “A Justice Deliberates: Sotomayor on Love, Health and Family,” interview with Nina Totenberg, NPR, January 12, 2013.
17 . Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder , 557 U.S. 193 (2009); Edward Blum, who bankrolled theFisher andShelby County cases, helped with the financing of this lawsuit, too.
20 . Shelby County v. Holder , 570 U.S. ___ (2013).
21 . Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin , 570 U.S. ___ (2013).
22 . September 27, 2013, letter to universities from Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary, Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, and Jocelyn Samuels, acting assistant attorney general, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Their Q-and-A fact sheet is available atwww2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-qa-201309.pdf .
23 . Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action , No. 12-682,April 22, 2014.
12. HER DIVIDED WORLD
1 . Financial disclosure forms on file at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts showed that Sotomayor earned advances from Knopf of $1.175 million in 2010 and $1.925 million in 2012.
2 . Author followed Justice Sotomayor on portions of her four-day book tour to Puerto Rico, April 1–4, 2013.
3 . Sotomayor was in the five-justice majority that invalidated a Defense of Marriage Act provision that barred federal benefits for legally married same-sex couples. She separately dissented in a California case when the Court ruled that a state senator lacked legal standing to defend Proposition 8. She was the only justice who aligned in both with key vote Kennedy.United States v. Windsor andHollingsworth v. Perry.
4 . Amy Argetsinger, “Sonia Sotomayor and Rita Moreno Discuss Men, Moms, Love, Life,”Washington Post , March 12, 2013.
5 . Sotomayor,My Beloved World , 280.
7 . Michiko Kakutani, “The Bronx, the Bench and the Life in Between,”New York Times , January 21, 2013.
9 . See, for example, Florence King, “Where She’s Coming From,”National Review/Digital , April 22, 2013; Damon Root, “Sonia Sotomayor’s Disappointing Memoir,”Reason.com
10 . Root, “Sonia Sotomayor’s Disappointing Memoir.”
11 . President Barack Obama Campaign Video, produced on three-year anniversary of the May 26, 2009, nomination announcement of Sonia Sotomayor to succeed retiring justice David Souter.
12 . Mark Hugo Lopez, “Among Recent High School Grads, Hispanic College Enrollment Rate Surpasses That of Whites,” Pew Research Center, September 4, 2013.
14 . David G. Savage and Michael A. Memoli, “Sotomayor Scheduling Conflict Leads to Biden’s Early Swearing-in,”Los Angeles Times , January 18, 2013.
18 . Emma G. Fitzsimmons, “Sotomayor to Lead Countdown to New Year in Times Square,”New York Times , December 29, 2013.
19 . Mark Hugo Lopez, “What Univision’s Milestone Says About U.S. Demographics,” Pew Research Center, July 29, 2013.
20 . “Sonia Sotomayor’s Dress and Other Revelations…,”Washington Post , December 13, 2013.
21 . Sotomayor lecture, Yale Law School, New Haven, February 3, 2014.
22 . Sotomayor,My Beloved World , 232.
23 . Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl , 570 U.S. ___ (2013).
24 . Author attended oral arguments inAdoptive Couple v. Baby Girl on April 16, 2013. Transcript on Supreme Court website atwww.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/12-399_53k8.pdf . Before attorney Lisa Blatt, who represented the Capobiancos, could utter a complete sentence, Sotomayor interrupted with protracted questioning, the core of which was: “Is it your position that because that father’s not a custodian, he has no protections whatsoever under [key parts of the law]?” Blatt tried to answer, but Sotomayor cut her off six times, amending the question as she interrupted. Chief Justice Roberts said, “Could I hear her answer, please?” Sotomayor’s intensity did not ease when lawyer Paul Clement began to argue on behalf of baby Veronica in a legal guardian role. Sotomayor interrupted him, asking questions related to the “best interest of the child” standard, a legal calculus used in most states to help determine which parent receives custody of the child. When Clement tried to answer, Sotomayor cut him off twice. When she interrupted Clement a third time, Scalia interjected, telling Clement to “Please finish. Let’s finish.”
25 . Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl , Alito decision for the majority.
26 . Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl , Sotomayor dissent. Regarding the law, she highlighted Congress’s goal of trying to prevent Indian children from ending up in homes with no connection to the tribe.
27 . Daimler AG v. Bauman, 571 U.S. ___ (2014).
28 . Sonia Sotomayor, Smithsonian Associates Evening Lecture, January 8, 2014, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
29 . Author interview with Judge Rosemary Pooler, February 6, 2014.
Selected Bibliography
ARCHIVES
George H. W. Bush Presidential Library
William Clinton Presidential Library
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan Papers, Library of Congress
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund Collection, Hunter College, New York
Senate Judiciary Committee collections of questionnaires, transcripts, and other materials on nominees Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, to the Supreme Court, and in 1998 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; José Cabranes in 1994, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; Miguel Estrada in 2003, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and Elena Kagan in 2010, to the Supreme Court
NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, JOURNALS, AND PRESS AGENCIES
Associated Press,Atlantic ,Berkeley La Raza Law Journal ,Boston Globe ,CENTRO Journal ,Chicago Tribune ,Christian Science Monitor ,Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report ,Daily Princetonian ,Foreign Policy ,Hartford Courant ,HispanicBusiness ,Hispanic National Bar Association Journal of Law and Policy ,Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education ,Judicature ,La Prensa San Diego ,Latina ,Los Angeles Times ,Nation ,National Journal ,National Review ,New Haven Register ,New Republic ,Newsweek , New YorkDaily News ,New Yorker ,New York Review of Books ,New York Times ,Politico , Reuters,Salon ,Slate ,Time ,USA Today ,Wall Street Journal ,Washington Post ,Yale Daily News
BOOKS
Alter, Jonathan.The Promise: President Obama, Year One . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
Aparicio, Frances R.Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
