Kagan celebrates Justice Ginsburg
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “has done as much as anyone in the last 40 years” to make the country more just and equal, her colleague on the bench, Justice Elena Kagan, said Monday night.
Kagan spoke about Ginsburg’s work as an attorney and her decisions as a judge at a lecture for the New York City Bar Association. The talk was for the annual “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Distinguished Lecture on Women and the Law” put on by the bar association, and Ginsburg was in the audience and introduced Kagan to the crowd.
Kagan started her remarks to the appreciative audience on a light note, pointing out that Ginsburg has numerous fans who have created online sites about her and showing pictures of Ginsburg as a young woman, but she went on to more serious praise, from the quality of her legal writing to the cases she has been involved with and her steadfast determination to work toward gender equality.
“As a litigator and then as a judge, she changed the face of American anti-discrimination law,” Kagan said.
Kagan discussed three cases Ginsburg took on as an attorney, all of which looked at laws that treated men and women differently. She also talked about three of Ginsburg’s judicial decisions — the striking down of the Virginia Military Institute’s male-only admission policy, in which Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in 1996; the 2007 Ledbetter v. Goodyear employment discrimination case in which she wrote the dissent; and the 2013 Vance v. Ball State discrimination case in which she also dissented.
Asked by a second-year law school student for any advice, Ginsburg said she’s enjoyed every part of her legal career, and what made her so satisfied is “I spent a lot of my time doing something outside myself, doing something that I hope makes life better for other people.”
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Sotomayor talks about navigating different worlds
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up poor in New York City, described Monday how she navigated new worlds of Ivy League universities and the nation’s highest court.
Sotomayor told students at Yale University that she has a competitive drive to improve herself and isn’t afraid to ask questions.
Sotomayor, the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court, said she didn’t even know what an Ivy League college was when a friend suggested she apply. She wound up attending Princeton and Yale Law School.
On the Supreme Court since 2009, Sotomayor said it was tough at first as justices made references that went over her head. She said joining the high court amounted to joining an ongoing conversation among justices who had served for years.
“I figure I may not be the smartest judge on the court but I’m going to be a competent justice,” she said. “I’m going to try to be the best I can and each year I think my opinions have been getting better. And I’m working at finding my voice a little bit.”
Sotomayor was asked at a talk at Yale Law School later in the day about her use of the term “undocumented immigrants” rather than the traditional illegal alien. Sotomayor characterized the issue as a regulatory problem and said labeling immigrants criminals seemed insulting to her.
“I think people then paint those individuals as something less than worthy human beings and it changes the conversation,” Sotomayor said.
Sotomayor was interviewed by Judith Resnik, a Yale law professor, in front of a large audience and later by Linda Greenhouse, a journalist-in residence and lecturer at the law school. The earlier questions focused on her memoir, “My Beloved World,” published last year.
The 59-year-old justice said she quickly left an interview to attend Harvard, feeling she didn’t belong. She said Yale students in the 1970s were talking about revolutions in Cuba and other countries while she had attended a Catholic high school where the monsignor supported the Vietnam War.
“This is too progressive for me,” she said of Yale, sparking laughter. “Yeah, strange, right?”
Sotomayor learned how to adapt, finding strength in her culture and getting a broader understanding of the world. She compared it to a bird that flies to different places.
“Learn what the world has to offer and come back to the nest when you need a little bit of comfort,” Sotomayor said.
She admitted that she sometimes finds herself stuck between two worlds, one in which her colleagues talk of operas and another in which she sees a cockroach in an apartment in her old Bronx neighborhood and flees.
“Sometimes I do feel I’m not part of either world completely,” she said. “My life has changed so much that going back I don’t feel I’m completely part of the conversation.”
But she said she’s found overlaps in both worlds that keep her connected, such as common emotions of love and caring.
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Justice Scalia: internment ruling could happen again
HONOLULU (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told law students at the University of Hawaii on Monday that the nation’s highest court was wrong to uphold the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the court issued a similar ruling during a future conflict.
Scalia was responding to a question about the court’s 1944 decision in Korematsu v. United States, which upheld the convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu for violating an order to report to an internment camp.
“Well of course Korematsu was wrong. And I think we have repudiated in a later case. But you are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,” Scalia told students and faculty during a lunchtime Q-and-A session.
Scalia cited a Latin expression meaning, “In times of war, the laws fall silent.”
“That’s what was going on — the panic about the war and the invasion of the Pacific and whatnot. That’s what happens. It was wrong, but I would not be surprised to see it happen again, in time of war. It’s no justification, but it is the reality,” he said.
Avi Soifer, the law school’s dean, said he believed Scalia was suggesting people always have to be vigilant and that the law alone can’t be trusted to provide protection.
Soifer said it’s good to hear Scalia say the Korematsu ruling was wrong, noting the justice has been among those who have reined in the power of military commissions regardless of the administration.
