Transcripts For CSPAN2 My Beloved World 20170902

The scope congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici pic that Sonia Sotomayors my beloved world. Booktv covered with just a sotomayor where chick talks about her book. [applause] greetings, welcome. [applause] greetings, welcome to the progressive form. Im with valens donder of the progressive form americas only civic speaker organization expressly does it dedicated to in the largest speaker organization in texas. [applause] we are excited tonight to present Supreme Court Justice Sonia sotomayor launching her first book a memoir called my beloved world. Please turn off your cell phones photography or video taping is not allowed. The beautiful flowers on stage or flowers that were found in lovely puerto rico. [applause] puerto rico just a sotomayors culture and family. Thank you cspan booktv to be here in Houston Texas at the wharton center. Welcome to you and her friends across the country joining us on television. Thank you for joining us. [applause] im excited to roll that anise parker and first Lady Kathy Hubbard are with us tonight. [applause] to anise parker is one of my heroes and one of my favorite people and a terrific mayor. Please stand mayor parker and first Lady Kathy Hubbard. [applause] you can see past presentations of the progressive form on our web site great minds such as jane goodall bill moyers and Supreme Court Justice John Paul stephens. Go to our web site at progressive form houston. Org. Thats progressive form houston. Org. We are pleased to give up to every attendee tonight. You show your ticket at the dissuasion table in the grand foyer. Additional books are also on sale in the grand foyer by the bookshop. After just a sotomayors presentation she will join you for for a q a. I should save Supreme Court rules dont allow us to discuss court cases of the past, present or future but we will fill deeply into the fascinating story. Just a sotomayor will sign books in the grand foyer were. I cried when i read my beloved world and i also laughed. It is a good book. I believe it will be more than a bestseller. It will become a classic american Success Story a required reading in high schools and colleges. Im amazed that the emails we have been getting from students who filled with exclamation points. Young people connect with Sonia Sotomayor. In her book i was especially impressed by the scene of sonia and her brother jr. As kids doing their homework with her mother who was also doing hers, studying to become a registered nurse, two generations encouraging each other. To me, just a sotomayors american Success Story for place the world myth. Her stories about individual determination but its also about community, family and negotiating culture boundaries. Its about overcoming poverty and chronic disease. Its about insecurity, selfdiscovery and the joys of growing an authentic person. Its about success in america as it really is. Sonia sotomayor is the first hispanic in third woman to serve on the u. S. Supreme court. She was born in the bronx and raised in a Public Housing project. Her parents moved from puerto rico to new york city during world war ii. Her father became a factory worker and her mother joined the womens auxiliary corps. Sonia sotomayor was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of seven and her father died when she was nine. She and her younger brother were raised by a single mother and her brother is now a doctor. Sonia sotomayor graduated as belichick taurine of her high school last. She graduated from Princeton University; body receiving the highest price for an undergraduate. In law school she was the editor gail livejournal. She could have become a highly paid lawyer but she went right into public service, becoming an assistant District Attorney serving the people of new york. She served in almost all levels of the judicial system including private Legal Practice as well as years and federal in 2009 president barack obama nominated in the u. S. Senate confirms Sonia Sotomayor is the 111th justice of the u. S. Supreme court. I give you Sonia Sotomayor. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] after i got to washington in 2009 i send the full project to everywhere in this large state and ive been repeatedly invited to visit. When you get a new job you are a little busy so i havent been able to calm but its a tribute to the warmth of the people ive met that has been confirmed in the few hours that id been here already. This is the third city on my tour. I was first in washington, my new home. I went back to the home of my heart over the weekend. As you saw on television that i was back and forth a lot. [laughter] and this is my first trip outside who. Im delighted that this is my first trip to texas and that im here. [applause] i wanted to visit more than one city and i am going to often but i cant visit every place i want to. I still have a day job and i only have a few days to promote my book but i made a promise on television so you can hold me to it, i will be back to visit other cities in texas. [applause] where are you and suzanne sitting . They are right there. You are part of the reason that i could, and it was randall and Suzanne Morton the founders of the Progressive Forum poohpooh this visit together for me. They have extended everyone think courtesy to me. I even had at dinner tonight. [applause] i am surrounded by flowers some of which i describe in the book. Part of my beloved world in puerto rico. So, im here to talk to you about my book and about what my book is about and when i started to write it was there was one thing i wanted to accomplish. When you write a memoir, and i have read many of them through my life, you sometimes come away asking the question, asking yourself the question, did i learn anything new about that person . Regrettably often ive read books and memoirs or autobiographies and really didnt learn much that i didnt already know. I didnt want to write that kind of book. I wanted to write something different, something where at the end of that a raider could come away and say to themselves, i think i know her will. So what my book my beloved world intended in part to do is let you see my heart and soul and in doing that i hope to show you who i was but also to show you a little bit of you. There was the purpose for doing that. And the purpose is captured in one part of my book which will is probably my favorite passage. I will read it to you because it summarizes one of the very Important Reasons that i wrote this book. Its on page 178 and it reads, when a young person, even a gifted one, grows up to without positive living examples of what she may aspire to be with her lawyer scientist artist or leader and in the realm of their goals remain abstract. Such models and folks around the news however inspiring were revered are ultimately too remote to be true but let alone influential. A role model in the flesh provides more than an inspiration. His or her very purpose is confirmation of possibilities one might have saying yes someone like me can do this. It was my hope that every child, and every adult to read this book in the end say will what i said during my nomination speech. Yes, shes an ordinary person just like me and its that ordinary person can do it, so can i do. Thats what i subscribe. [applause] thats what i try to do in the story of this book, to tell you my experiences and my feelings. As i perceive them at the time and he will find me talking in the child and then give you the reflection of the adult. It wasnt so easy to do, to put myself back in time and to tell you what i was feeling but i did it for a purpose and that purpose was to tell you what ive learned from those experiences. And in the process will you have to hope that every Single Person in this room who has experienced even one of the difficulties i have faced in life and those difficulties are as diverse as growing up in poverty, having a chronic disease and its surprising how many people suffer from chronic disease and live their lives never talking about it, to being a child raised by a single parent, to facing discrimination and whether its about my ethnicity or my gender or its about my background, we each feel the sting of it in some way. But to simply being afraid which i think most people who are hearing. We all create a bravado about we are okay. Its easy to say but hard to do. And so i talk about those feelings and as ordinary a way as i can and in an open or away as i could in order to i hope give people courage to talk about and rethink their own experiences. There was a second purpose to this book because you see, the books that i love are the books that ive read and make me think on Different Levels that deliver more than one message because there is a beauty i think in reading of book and discovering new things. You will learn about how i use books after my fathers death to escape the unhappiness in my home. They became who a rocketship who thought of that unhappiness with the rocketship that landed me on far universes of the world when i found fiction to understanding places that i thought i was never i nap gracefully have the wherewithal to do it but i found africa and places that i had heard about on television but never imagine knowing and i learned about them in books. I hope that every child in this audience and annie child understands that television is wonderful but words paid pictures and a way that nothing else can. Im going to read one part of my book that describes a scene in my childhood that will prove my point for everyone in this room. Because i think these passages paints a picture of my grandmother that you dont be dissing the photographs in the book although it might just happen but that also will describe my life in a way that i hope paints a picture for you without having a photograph. Im reading from page 15 of my book. And it reads the what she wanted me to come with her to buy some chicken. I was the only one who ever went with her birth. I loved her totally and without reservation will and it was a safe haven for my storms at home. I have come to believe in order to thrive a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love and respect. I was determined to throw up just like her to the age for the same exuberant gray swoope. Not that we both much alike. She had very dark eyes, darker than mine and along the face with a pointed nose framed by long straight hair, nothing like my nose in short curly hair but otherwise recognizing in each other up. And enjoy a bond beyond explanation and deep emotional resonance that sometimes we were so much alike in fact the people called me little mercedes which was the source of ray pride for me. But she also had a special connection with her. Even nelson never wanted to go on saturday mornings. It wasnt just the chicken. They had baby goes and pence pigeons and ducks and rabbits in cages stacked up against the long wall. The cages were stacked so high that she would climb up a ladder and wheels to see into the top rows. The purse would be squawking and talking and screaming. There were feathers in the air sticking to the wet floor which was slippery and there were chickens are with me nice. One of my favorite parts of the book. [applause] argue there with me . At the end of my confirmation process everybody learned about my mother and she is someone thats worthy of being learned about but one day she said to me sonia, who no one has talked about your abuelita. She really was the most important person in your life and so i used this book in part to tell the story of my abuelita, my grandmother because almost everybody and there are some unfortunate people who dont have predicted another grandmothers for their grandfathers both with those who do know what a special kind of love it is her. Every abuelita in this book i hope you will see a piece of yourself, someone that is special. That brings me to a critically important part of this book and motive for it. During the confirmation process i was being asked so many questions. Im going to tell you the following. I always upset my marshals when i do this. Im going down to the audience. Im sorry i cant go up there. You are too far up there. I was here earlier this afternoon and i looked at here and i said oh this is lovely. Wow is this big. [laughter] but i cant go to you and i wont go as far back as i want to. But i find that if i walk among you i prove my family right. They used used to calm a hot pepper because i could never sit still. I still cant, okay wax so people are asking me about my father and where he came from and what his family was like. I really didnt have much to tell them. They were asking me a lot about my own mother and their basic parts of her story that i knew that there was a lot that i couldnt mention and in fact some of the information that came out during the confirmation hearing proved to be wrong. In fact i didnt know where my father was born with. Id thought it was the town that i had left from in puerto rico but it turns out with he was born in a town called hey. [laughter] and i will tell you one of the things that surprised me to no end. The people who are helping me do the research on my family importer rico went to the local priest to look at her familys birth record. The priest said to the person i knew she would end up here. We were just waiting. And he reached behind and pulled up the book with with the birth certificate of my father. So its a very touching moment were, a very touching moment. The second thing happened during my confirmation hearing. Every morning before i went to the white house i would call my mother will just to hear her voice. I dont talk to my mother every day. Our broker a bad habit a long time ago. [laughter] they are never going to like me saying that but one night and forgot to call her after she was used to me calling her every day and she was frantic. And i told her, i get busy you know so now i call her, i talked to her at least once a week and sometimes more but i try to do it spontaneously so she doesnt worry as much. I never liked mens wet lessons. But i found myself calling her every moment to that stress period because hearing her voice gave me comfort. And i realized that as much as i knew her, as much as we had in our life together that i really havent spent that much time talking to her about her life and her feelings. I talk a lot about my feelings but not enough about her feelings. One of the things that i struggled with was to ask her a question that i had never asked her, and it was were you ever in love with daddy . To understand the background by the time i came around a few years later my father had become such an alcoholic that my life with him was filled with unhappiness. One of the greatest gifts of writing this book was finding out about a father i never knew. And the love story between him and my mom. So im going to read you just a piece of my book because of all of the chapters in this book the one love the most is chapter 6. Its the chapter of the story i learned from my mother just by talking to her. It wasnt until i began to write this book nearly 50 years after the events of that sad year of my dads death that i came to a mature understanding. For most of my life the sense of my father and of my parents relationship with defined by the narrow aperture as i watched them as a child. That was frozen in time when my father died. My theory of guiltinduced grief was hardly more sophisticated world than at 5 cents a pop. The shame of my fathers alcoholism silence and a conversation among the adults that might have caused me to question what i thought. As we grew to my brother and i would speak more openly to each other but he would add nothing to my analysis although when he died he had virtually no memories of my father or the time before his death. So with the vocabulary of hindsight i assumed were my mothers grief and provide some form of clinical depression that was never treated but that somehow resolve itself. I had never before in all of these years asked that very intelligent and perceptive woman for her own version of events. I would be startled but by what i covered and even grateful to be the happier version of my father and my mother will than i ever knew. My parents relationship was richer and more complex than the child could imagine. The stories that come to life are all the more precious to me for having captured as my mothers memory is fading faster with age. Sometimes the people closest to us are those that we know the least work. Where should i begin, sans yet . Began at the beginning, mommy and the rest of the chapters that story. I hope you will read it to find the joy i did. [applause] so i pass on the greatest lesson of this book. To every person in this auditorium who has a living parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, anyone who is alive who has a memory of your familys history do what it took me 50 55 years to get to. Sit down and talk to them. We listened to their stories with an open mind and learn about yourself will. You know what happens . I know because i did. Here are the stories of this on the table are visiting at christmas and you go [laughter] the idea is very famous and latino culture producing if here we go again. And we all do it. How often have you heard the story and you think you know it . You think you understand the reason behind it and why. Im giving you a free lesson. Dont do what i did. Dont wait until they are not here any longer. Do it whenever you have the chance. I have to tell you, i took the time during the busiest part of my life that i had ever had becoming a Supreme Court justice i did it for personal reasons. The personal reason was because i wanted to hold on to sonia. I had been thrust on the world stage and my life was moving and has been moving at an incredible pace. What happened the thing to all of us we thank sometimes that happens or we forget to be grateful. I didnt want to forget. This book is my memory. This book is here so the day i get conceded my family and friends will pick up the book and hit me over the head with it and tell me to remember. But it is also a tribute to the moment that i took in the very hectic life that i created at times but also my spare Vacation Time this summer. I havent had a vacation for three years since i was nominated. I had taken a week off here and there but every day of my last three summers ive treated this book like a job. I got up early in the morning and by 9 00 i was at my desk with. I have been talking into dictaphone writing or editing and i worked every day will from early in the morning until 6 00 or 6 30 at may night five days a week. You dont treat a task is a job that doesnt get done for but will that benefit was that i learned about my family, learn about yours. Take the time no matter how busy you are. Make the time. Im not exaggerating. People from around the world who come to the United States to tell me they watch my nomination on tv. People telling me from all of the world that they reader cases and follow the issues that the court is looking at. Because of it, everything you do is under constant scrutiny. After hold on to people when im walking down places because of my broken ankle, thank you. This is a little steep. And then a write a book and show you part of my heart and soul. I hope its worthwhile i started my book and i have been asked by many, why did you start about the diagnosis of your disease and i started by saying to all of you but i know that much of many of us hide the said things that in our life it wasnt easy to talk about no gallic father. Wasnt easy to talk about the cherry felt when my disease was diagnosed. It wasnt easy to talk to people about how it is an ever present part of my life. But so is asthma for many people, so our family members who are drug addicts you learn in this book about a relative of mine and it was nelson, we were inseparable as children youll see pictures on this book that will show you that almost every picture that i mendelson is right next to me. Nelson die before he was 30 and many of the weeks after. I read to passage i read it to you because his sister seven this past weekend at an event and he said to me sonia, thank you. Very few people remember who nelson was. I know you brought it back to life. We might even teach kids some good. So, i will read you chapter 26 if i try to understand how it happened to that two children so closely match could meet such different fate i enter a subterranean world of nightmares. Where they are in the crust of the crowd, the moment that i made but he cannot. Reason seems a better defense of the pain. Let me understand my logical way what made the difference between two children who began almost as twins and inseparable, and in our own eyes, virtually identical. Almost, but not quite. He was smarter, he had the father i wished for, and we shared special blessing. Why did i endure, even thrive when he failed, consumed by the same dangers that had surrounded me. Some of this [inaudible] the pressure that pushes boys into the streets while protecting girls. But, theres more. Nelson had mentioned that that the hospital, the one thing that i had that he lacked, call it what you like, discipline, determination, perseverance, the force of will. Even apart from him saying so, i knew it made all of the difference in my life. If only i could bottle it i would share it with every kid in america. Well, you know what that is about . Its about being stubborn. Every time your parents tell you not to be stubborn, look at them and save that justice said it was a good thing. [applause] [applause] it is an easy even for people with money. I have plenty of friends who have proven that to me in life. Money doesnt buy happiness. Its an old adage, its very true adage. Life throws each of us a lot of bad if you let them knock you down, that life is really unhappy. For me, the thing besides all of the people in the world who have supported me and i talked about that support in that book, the communities that organize themselves to help you nominated to the Supreme Court, something i will be eternally grateful to. Many of the communities were from here in texas. People help and say dont know whats really important. Not being so proud and arrogant that you think you know it all. Thats one of the hardest things to do in the world. To say, i dont know, help me please. I hope my book will encourage more people to do that more frequently. In the end, it is not giving up. Its about trying, retrying, trying again. Not letting the pain of failure, and i describe my failures in this book. Ive had my fair share of them. Not to let them knock you down, but to get up and try again. And to understand that even if you dont reach the moon when you aim for, you can land on an asteroid that goes by be a very happy one. But unless you try you cannot achieve anything. You cannot succeed in life without trying. And in the very end, this is a book about trying, sometimes feeling but having arrived at life and i and the book with this, a life in which i can say i am truly blessed. Thank you for sharing. [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] well done. The title of your book. What you tell people where the questions came from. They came online, may be mailed them. So some of these are from people in the audience. Absolutely. Thank you did me a lot of good today. Thank you, i am stronger also. The title of your book, my beloved world this from a poem in your book called, to puerto rico i return. What were your reflections in choosing that title . In the poem there is a line that talks about returning to my beloved world. And my world is not puerto rico alone, but puerto rico is an important slice of it. I thought it was so fitting to call this book my beloved world because im introducing the world. To the things that i love. Despite descriptions of some very bad things in difficult times and challenges. The book is about love. A love of life, a love of people, a love of experiences that have strengthened me. Even in their challenge. So the title just seems right. And, you know something . If you have never visited puerto rico its a great place. By the way, when september 11 came all of us, i think not just in new york but the entire world riveted to the reviews. One of the journalist interviewed a woman from the midwest and said to the reporter, ive been watching the events in new york. And those people are just like us. I bet some of you have said that about new yorkers. That moment we realize many things. One, that in all of the unhappiness of september 11, it was in the way that americans came together. It did not matter what background we had where we are from. We stood together as a nation that was an important lesson. But, it also had made me realize a nice read in this book that i wanted people to see a slice of my life that was different than theirs. I doubt that my experience as a puerto rican was identical to the experience of mexicans in texas, identical to the experience of other immigrant groups in different parts of the United States or the world. But we share so many commonalities. We share so much more than when were different. I thought in describing my world, my beloved world and the descriptive ways that i try to accomplish, that people would appreciate those commonalities. And they would come away with feeling their own lives even though the details might be different. You are famous for a phrase that came up in your confirmation hearings, its in some of your speeches, a wise latina woman. Now, when i heard that i felt there is more to the story. I thought there was more behind it. What can you share with us . There have been many misunderstandings about that phrase, and the article that i wrote. The people did not appreciate is where he came from. And working from was being a person who sometimes looked down upon by the larger society. People talk about latinos generally in terms like illegal aliens. I do not use that term. Some are undocumented. But illegal alien sounds like were all drug addicts. Murderers, yes, it breaks the law to be undocumented. But, there are different kinds of crime. In some are worse than others and White Collar Crime is different than the kind of negative images that people portray on latinos in the United States. I have always wanted to convey to latino kids that we should take enormous pride in our culture. That we could be what i am, a very proud american with a latina heart and soul. And i did not have to apologize to anybody for being the, or for anything. [applause] it was not offensive to suggest superiority. It is intended to do something completely different. To convey equality. Because, when you dont feel equal, somebody has to remind you sometime that you are. And so, i think the phrase that offended some and i wish i had conveyed that in better terms than i did. And what i chose to do. But his message was born from a sense of pride in knowing that i come from a very rich background and culture, second to none, not superior to any, but equal. And so thats what i hope. [applause] thats what i hope will come o out. Moving from the bronx or Princeton University from one world to another in a series of cultures shocks, you described it as being a stranger in strange lands, but you discovered ways of adapting to new cultural worlds. Whats your advice to others negotiating the same kinds of passages . What i have done and i described in my book and every juncture my life, ive stay connected to people from the latino community. I have joined latino groups. I have advocated for some of the needs of latinos. Ive done it because it gives me a sense of comfort and security in my life. We dont gravitate to that which we grew up in, because its the familiar. The familiar is warming and security and confidence building. But, very careful to give a more broader lesson in my book to talk about the name, not to insulate yourself within your community, but simply to use it as a springboard into the larger world. Yes, go back, know your culture, have your friends, feel their warmth but then, go out and explore, thats what theyre therefore, to support you if you fall down, to pick you up and push you out again and let you try new things. I talk about building bridges and not building walls in my book. I talk in those terms because i dont believe in isolation, i believe every community should try to go into the world and embrace it all. Weather is going to a place like princeton which was alien to me, to making friends were not latinos. Its to convenience not to reach out and make friends that are different than you. But convenience doesnt help you grow. You have to take the risk of meeting new people to learn new things. An important things. So, taking the time to embrace who you are, but at the same time embrace others is not that easy for a lot of people. I really wanted that message to come through in the book. There is a theme in your book, i think it started in high school when you werent sure how to do it and you sought out the smartest kid in class and asked her how to study. And you have sought mentors all the way through. Mentors are the most important thing in ones life. The first passage i wrote about in being a role model, it was an introduction to one of the most important mentors in my life. That was jose who is a judge, federal judge of the u. S. District court of the Second Circuit in new york. We later became colleagues. But jose was the first successful, really successful latino that i had encountered when i was in law school. And in talking about how important he was because he was a role model of what i might people to do and achieve. I intuitively understood and is that story about seeking out that friend from grammar school, i had a fifthgrade teacher and i described this in the book, who bit give up gold stars we got good grades. And i wanted gold stars. But i can figure out how to do it. And so i knew there is one girl and i have been in school there for four years. She got all of the gold stars, and i wanted some. So i went to her and i said, how do you study . I learned in writing this book because i saw her again and believe it or not, i didnt remember that story, she reminded me of that story. [laughter] it was nice to be able to included in the book. But, she explained how she stu study, how to underline the important facts and what she was reading, how to go back through them the next day so she began to commit them to memory and how before each exam she would go through the passages again really looking at those important points. And she said thats how she went about remembering everything she had and answering questions in the quiz, up until then, i read it once and that was it. She taught me that memorizing things wasnt photographic memory, you have to repeat it often until it sinks in. What a life lesson. I use it to this day. I tell law students, when you have to go into court, stand in front of a mirror and say your Opening Statement a dozen times. Do the same thing with your closing statement. And then pick a friend who is not a lawyer, and practice before them. So they can tell you what they dont understand. Nothing i do, do i do without practice. And so, it was a lesson from her that really led me how to be a good student. In the Supreme Court, it is a mysterious and secretive worlds most of us. How about sharing what your typical day at the court looks like. When i say, most of you will not want the job. [laughter] you know, we spend most of our days reading. We read briefs, which are briefs by friends of the court. We read the record that is being created below, we read the decisions across the country who face the question. We then research and we write. Only write and then we add it. In almost every day were reading research, writing and editing. Does some very exciting. Then our opening gets published in all that thinking is shown to the world. It is what people look at, but they dont really realize how much we have to do to get there. Its work to get there and hard to get there. Remembering is a judge that every decision you make theres a winner and theres a loser. People forget about the losers. If they like the decision and they have one, they think were smart. They dont like what we have done they dont think were smart. They think were lazy how could they get this wrong, or they think were doing it based on politics. That somehow we dont like what they like i want to do it our way. So far from the truth. Judging is a skill, a professi profession. You are trained to look at issues in the legal way. To think about the questions not based on your personal likes or dislikes, but on the tools of interpretation you are taught and have learned to understand. The process can seem boring twin outsider. To someone who love law the way i do is completely engaging. The other half of the day, were interacting with the public. The Supreme Court gives visitors from around the world. Ive met with School Children as young as second grade. Grammar school, high school, college professional, not just law school. I meet with students who will be doctors, businessmen, groups of all kinds that are represented in society who come to the court meet with us to have conversations about what we do. We get visitors from around the world, judges from around the world. People around the world reader cases and study our legal system. They come char court looking to meet with us and talk to us and for each of us to learn from each other. And i travel to law school, i travel to Bar Association groups, i travel to other kinds of groups as well. I want to reach out and teach people about the law and how it makes me so passionate about what i do. In one meeting with people if i can get them to understand our legal system better, i hope they will become better citizens. That there will be more active citizens in working with the community and improving it for everyone. So we are busy on Different Levels, not just being in the courtroom. The hours that lawyers have to argue cases before us; some of the work we put into it. The most popular question submitted was, how did the justices get along . [laughter] i know relations among you are deeply collegial. Some wondering, what are the conference rituals and the ways to build relationships . It starts with respect. If you come into this process appreciating that every single justice on the court has a passion and the love of the constitution in our country that is equal to line, then you know that if you accept that as an operating truth, which it is then you understand that you dont disagree. You can understand that you can disagree respectfully, and sometimes passionate words if you read our decisions, were not only so nice to each other in our decision, but thats because we have a commitment to the answer we think is right. As you know from your personal relationships, when people think theyre right they can get really agitated. But we do that in writing. And in person we treat each other with affection and love. Because, we understand that commitment, we respected. So, i hope i didnt use too many of these phrases in my book that i use some come i think its unavoidable. We are family. We spend more time with each other than any of us spends with our spouses or friends. Because we Work Together every day of the week. We are doing our work in our office or elsewhere comfortably. So when you spend that much time with each other you figure out a way how to love each other and still disagree. Its what family does every day. Try figuring out what movie are going to go to on a friday or saturday. I understand in your conference that you all take turns and you cant speak again until it comes round to you. Its a way of making sure nobody hogs up all the time. On wednesdays, we vote on the cases we heard on the monday of a particular week. On friday we discuss the cases we heard tuesday and if we have a wednesday, wednesday. So we break it up because it can take time to talk about a case. The chief starts and he does two or three sentences to remind us what the case was about, although we all know it. Swisher that we are on the same page, but sometimes, not often you will say the issue is this in the case and will come around to someone and say i disagree with you think this is issue. So he starts there and then tells you what his motives and why. Of that explain why she didnt think the other side argument made sense. The next person to speak is the most senior judge after the chief, and senior in years and tenure. In this case it is Justice Scalia now. He says, i either agree with the chief and if i do, doing everything except i think we should mention this, i dont think one of these reasons is really a reason. I think we should answer the argument this way. Expresses what convinced him. It goes down the line until it reaches the justice that goes last. But somewhere in there some of my say discrete altogether and i will dissent. They will explain why they are dissenting and why the other side is wrong. If theres someone who joins that dissenter, theyll do the same as the agreed years to come theyll say yes, but we should say this, no, we shouldnt say that. But the time the conference ends, when the writer of the opinion is ultimately signed, and the assignments are by the chief if hes in the majority. If hes not in the majority than the most senior judge who voted in the majority assigns the opinion. The most senior judge in the dissent picks who writes it. But, by the time you sit down to write an opinion, you have a very clear outline of what your colleagues are thinking. It is your job to write an opinion that other people will join. Because, you need five votes to win. Theres a joke among judges, if youre on the trial court count as one, me. If youre on the Appeals Court theres three judges. You know how to count to two. Your vote and the other guy that led to it went. If youre on the Supreme Court you know how to count to five. But, you have to write so people will join your opinion. The same with the dissent. You want to write so you get everybody to say you are right. Thats how the process of writing begins. Clearly, after the draft committed sometimes people say you really are not thinking the way i am. I have to write differently. The conclusion might be the same and that is called a concurrence. The same happens among dissenters. I was sam not dissenting for that reason, im dissenting for this one. But, we tried to come together as groups as often as we can. Yesterdays inauguration i knew a great. [applause] the inauguration reminds us of the power of the competition. Why does it work . Its remarkable that i got a document has worked for 223 years in the worlds most diverse nation. Why do you think it works . Because our forefathers didnt write to document for the time. They wrote a document to last. The way they did that was to try not to assign for their day, but to use terms and concepts that each generation could interpret to meet their needs. And so, one of the biggest issues the court is constantly grappling with his come in this age of new technology what does an unreasonable search and seizure so it dealt with cases of can the government go over your home and use technology that takes the air that emanates from your home . Weve had questions about wiretap. Weve had questions about gps tracking, people in cars. We will have many more. Im for sure the forefathers had no idea that the computer and computer chips which come into existence, even benjamin franklin, i doubt very much that he ever in his wildest fantasy imagine the things we see today. If they had used terms that were more specific than they did, we would not have been given the opportunity to define it with experience. And so, they did a mixture. Make sure its the very clear things, you cannot do this. One thing we forget about today, you cant corner the militia in peoples homes, except in times of war. Thats pretty specific. But there are many other things that they left generally. I think thats what the documents have left. They give us a concept and we were guided by the concept. Power not let into a fixed time. What worries about the constitution . Other trends or issues that you might have your eye on . Are you a lawyer . Many. I will talk about one thing the recent election has given me gratification about. Our forefathers were citizens. Then they were all men so i use the word statesman. They were people who are of the community therein, they were the elite of that society, they were very successful, there are three people who had High Education and they actually traveled the world and learn from other cultures. The constitution was written by men who studied the government through history and of other country. And they crafted something that was unique by the time by picking and choosing of the various things they saw discarding the things that they thought didnt work and coming up with creative it solutions for the issues they thought had not been redone by other systems. So im gratified by is that more people are voting than they had in past years. It worries me when citizens forget that it is their obligation, not to let the country just happened, but to create the country they want. Thats why tell people when they ask me, how do you feel about Immigration Law . How do you feel about the debate of the Second Amendment . Get all these questions and i can answer because i generally have cases im still consideri considering. I dont want people to believe i have made up my mind, because i havent. But i find express an opinion that is what they will believe. What i often say is, why are you asking me . Why are you asking yourself. What you think . What are you doing about it . If what you think is you dont like something. Thats what this country was founded on. People getting up and starting a war. To change a country and create a new one. Some not suggesting rebellion, far from that place but i am encouraging civil responsibility. We should all be out there bopping for the things important for us. We change if you take charge of that change. Not the court. The last question, taking you back to nomination, and the time from your nomination cheer swearing in to the Supreme Court, was there a moment that stands out that was particularly meaningful . I spoke about it earlier, the moment i realized how extraordinarily special my mother was. We take the people we love for granted. They are in our life we sometimes dont really know how important they are to us. The most special moment of all during the nomination process was that her friend broke my rule. I was not letting friend show me any press about me but one of my closest friends said, you have to watch this. I wash my brother being interviewed on television. And he was describing me and he started to cry. In that moment, like never before i knew how deeply my brother love me. Most of us dont get a chance to see better feel that, except in moments of tragedy. I got to feel it in a joyful moment. That may have been the greatest gift. Thank you for a beautiful evening, here is a gift from us. Thank you so much. [applause] when he think about a oneday festival, the National Book festival and you have over 100 authors from childrens authors, illustrators, graphic novelists, all the authors there all day, over 100,000 people commit and celebrate books and reading. You cannot have a better time. Im a little prejudiced because im a librarian. If any reader or anybody that wants to get inspired, the book festival is the perfect place. Five coverage begins at 10 0s including david mccall and thomas friedman. Former secretary of state condoleezza rice, and Michael Lewis and jd vance. The National Book festival, Live Saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on book tv. Welcome to book tv on cspan2 in prime time. Tonight, were looking at books been read by members of congress. The speaker of the house, paul ryan put out his reading list. Heres what he had to say. Every her book tv s members of congress with their reading. Heres a look at some books paul ryan has on his list. His reading washington the li life an indepth look of the first president of the United States. Also a strong fathers, strong daughters by a pediatrician. She highlights the importance of the father daughter relationship. Book tv wants to know what youre reading. Send us your list via twitter book tv, or instagram at book underscore tv. Or posted to the facebook page, facebook. Com book tv. Put tv on cspan2. Television for serious readers. Speaker ryan mentioned the book on what George Washington that when the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. Well show you that author presentation now. Washington was dignified, stoic, heroic, fiercely devoted to duty