Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Thursday that fellow Justice Clarence Thomas “cared about legal matters in a different way than I do,” noting that “everyone” can stand on their own. she added she thought.
Speaking at Chicago’s Roosevelt University, Sotomayor praised his colleagues and said they “cared about people.”
“He cares about legal matters in a different way than I do,” said the liberal Sotomayor of his conservative colleague. According to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“Growing up very poor, Clarence believes everyone can stand on their own. I don’t think everyone can reach the bootstraps.”
Obama presidential candidate Sotomayor said he was trying to “find the good in everyone.”
“I look for the good things they do,” Sotomayor said of the different views put forward by Supreme Court judges.
Sotomayor, who received the Eleanor Roosevelt Social Justice Award at Thursday’s event, answered student questions while conversing with former judge Ann Claire Williams of the Northern District of Illinois.
The event was organized by A Pipeline Organization, which seeks to provide people of color with a “way” into the legal profession.
Sotomayor also discussed the future of law and her judicial philosophy, saying that current law “can make it difficult to see the legal system as fair.”
“Fairness is a judgment about how we as a society help each other, and how we share our limited resources as fairly as possible,” she said.
“These choices are not made by me as a judge, but by the law passed.”
A former trial and appellate judge appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009 stressed the importance of raising children for justice.
“I ask people, ‘What options do we have other than to keep trying to change things?’ Because if you allow them to fight and you’re not willing to stand up and fight, you’re just giving it to them.
“Men and women died for them, so we have civil rights. How can we think of giving up when others are bleeding for justice?”
Sotomayor admits her generation has left a “really messed up world” behind, telling children, “We adults let you down.”
“You’re the future because you get along better than we do,” she said of her children.
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