BOOK - Sotomayor and the U.S. Supreme Court

"‘Breaking In’ explores Sotomayor’s Supreme Court disruptions and breakthroughs" PBS NewsHour 10/17/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  President Obama appointed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the court, in 2009.

Since then, she has brought her unique style to a normally cloistered and reserved court.

Reuters journalist Joan Biskupic takes us behind the scenes of the secretive court proceedings to reveal how Sotomayor is shaking things but in her new book, “Breaking In:  The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice.”

Gwen Ifill spoke with her earlier this week.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Joan Biskupic, thank you for joining us.

I want to start by talking about the subtitle of your book, in which you talk about the politics of justice.  When it comes to Sonia Sotomayor, what do you mean by that?

JOAN BISKUPIC, Author, “Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice”:  No one gets to the Supreme Court by accident.

And she, from the start, once she became a federal judge on the lower court, looked forward to that, and she had built networks along the way.  And what I did in the book was sort of trace her trajectory with the rise of Latinos in America, but also through the politics of justice, how one gets on a district court, is elevated to the appeals court, and then, in 2009, is this breakthrough justice, our first Hispanic, appointed by the first African-American president.

GWEN IFILL:  And a disruptive justice in many ways.

JOAN BISKUPIC:  People who don’t realty know the Supreme Court don’t understand the rhythms, the decorum, the hierarchies that exist there.

It really struck me that here was this justice who could have shattered a lot of that.  If you follow her around, as I did, in San Juan, for example, when she was on her own book tour, you saw these throngs of people lining up to see her.

And I was so struck about how different it was in San Juan compared to where she spends most of her time, in this marble palace where everyone lines up by their role, by their hierarchies.  The court police are constantly monitoring who gets in this line, the lawyers, who gets in this line, the public, who gets in this line, the reporters.

But the people who came to see Sonia Sotomayor and who are her people, as she calls them, are all sorts and they all come together.