I recently finished Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography, My Beloved World. It’s a terrific book and an interesting companion to another outstanding Supreme Court memoir, Justice Clarence Thomas’s My Grandfather’s Son. In a nutshell, My Beloved World traces Justice Sotomayor’s life from her early childhood in the Bronx through her confirmation as a federal district court judge. She doesn’t write about her judicial career, which she views as a work in progress. Nor does she discuss her judicial philosophy. The book is about her personal story, not her legal perspective. Fortunately, her personal story is mesmerizing. She grew up mostly in public housing. Her father, described as a usually sweet man afflicted by alcoholism, died when she was nine. Her mother worked long hours as a nurse and was often absent, physically as well as emotionally. Young Sonia was, of necessity, independent and self-sufficient; she was diagnosed with diabetes and at age seven learned to administer her own shots as no adult could be counted on to do so. Yet she was nonetheless rooted in the rich soil of a large extended family and a strong Puerto Rican community. She was also extremely close to her brother, now a physician; a brilliant cousin; and other exceptional peers. She attended Catholic school through twelfth grade, and despite the challenges of growing up poor and sometimes living a long distance from her school, she excelled. She was involved in student government, and it is evident that she came naturally to networking and politics. She [...]
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