Sonia Sotomayor To Start New Job On Monday: What’s On Her Mind?

Our honored abuelita de justicia, Sonia Sotomayor begins her new job at the Supreme Court of the United States on Monday and we’re all very excited. It’s about to get spicy up in the highest court in the land and Sotomayor appears ready for the challenge. She’s been throwing out pitches at the Yankees game, trying (and failing) to sell her house in Greenwich Village and will be covered on C-SPAN beginning tomorrow night during their promotional Supreme Court Week, which is second only to Discover’s Shark Week in thrilling weeks of entertainment.

Let’s have a look at a preview of her one on one interview, ‘cept with us doing the questions, which will be shown in its entirety on Oct. 10 at 9 p.m EDT.

So, how’d you hear you got the job? Did Obama call you and be like, we want your wise spicy fire in the Supreme Court?

I was told that Monday that the President would – I had been told all weekend that the president would be making up his mind, making his decision sometime on Monday, and I had been sitting in my office from 8:00 that morning waiting for a phone call. The phone calls I got instead were from my family telling me, or asking me what was happening, and I was getting the calls almost hourly. And almost – and every hour I would say, ‘I don’t know.’ …

He made you wait for the whole dang day?!

What I was told was that the president had gotten distracted with some important other business that was going on at the time, and that he would call me at about 8:00 p.m. but that I should go home and pack to come to Washington, and that they would prefer that I didn’t take a plane. …

At 8:10 p.m. I received a call at my – on my cell phone. The White House operator tells you that the president is on the line. … I had the – my cell phone in my right hand and I had my left hand over my chest trying to calm my beating heart, literally. And the president got on the phone and said to me, ‘Judge, I would like to announce you as my selection to be the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.’ And I said to him–I caught my breath and started to cry and said, ‘Thank you, Mr. President.’ That was what the moment was like.

Sounds hot. So what did he say?

He asked me to make him two promises. The first was to remain the person I was, and the second was to stay connected to my community. And I said to him that those were two easy promises to make, because those two things I could not change. And he then said we would see each other in the morning. Which we obviously did.

What was it like getting ready for the biggest speech of your life? Were you tempted to drop a wise Latina line for kicks?

I practiced my speech for an hour. The last thing I did before I went to bed was to reread it and try to commit it again to memory. And three hours later when I got up, the first thing I did was to give the speech without the papers in front of me and when I was able to do that I said, I got it. And then I was able to shower and get dressed comfortably.

Oh girl, when you talk like that, it’s hard to focus. We all know, underneath your robes, there’s an endless story. But seriously, what’s on your mind going into your new job as a Supreme Court Justice?

No response.

So yeah, that’s all we’ve got until Supreme Court Week begins. But what are the things you want Sotomayor to promise to do in shaping the laws of the land in her upcoming tenure? All we’re hoping for is that she doesn’t fuck it up like Alberto Gonzalez.