Each other up. The most important thing we can do. All right. [applause] pres. Obama so it is a womans turn. Ok. Everybody is pointing at this young lady. All of her friends are pointing at her, so she has something very important to say. [cheers] welcome to peru, mr. President. My name is sophia, and my friends and i are students. I know you have met mariana. Remember the school . Marianna acosta . I am a student over there. We are so lucky to be studying their to be studying there to get a job in tech, but there is so many young people without our type of opportunity. So what do you recommend for more quality education or opportunity for young people in latin america . Pres. Obama the program you described is doing great work, and there is a lot of good work across latin america. One of the goals is to make sure that not only are we providing a great education for people at the younger stages, basic reading, arithmetic, all those things, but today, you also need to have some knowledge of technology. And what we are trying to do is to work with governments and ngos who expand access to the internet, to digital platforms, and what we also want to do then is to help design curriculums and programs through the internet so that Online Learning is accessible in places where previously there might not be opportunities. We are seeing some of those investments here in peru. That is part of the broader Educational Program that we have throughout latin america, but we can still do more. It is not just us. It is a Publicprivate Partnership also. So having facebook participate and microsoft and other and google and other Big Companies who have an interest in an educated population because the more educated and the more wired they are, the more, over time, customers are using their products and their platforms. What we want to do is to make sure that everybody, even in the smallest village, has suddenly this library to the world and the best educational opportunities, even if there is not a Big University in that small town. Some of the learning that we can do, it doesnt have to be four years. Sometimes a sixweek program could teach people coding and computers, and suddenly right away, that person has a job, and then they can learn more and ultimately go and get a fouryear education. But oftentimes, what you need is that first step. We are doing this in the United States, by the way. It is not just in latin america. In the United States, one of the things we are finding is we need to expand Computer Science and literacy in the schools. We need to make sure also that we set up Technical Training systems, where somebody who is unemployed in a city where there used to be a big factory but now the factory is closed, or because of automation and robots, fewer people are working there, those people have lost their jobs, they might not be able to afford to just go to a fouryear university. Give them six weeks, eight weeks , 10 weeks of training. Get them in a job right now, and then over time, they can learn even more. So congratulations, you guys are doing great work. [applause] pres. Obama all right. Ok. So this is a team effort now. It is good to see this cooperation. Everybody is pointing at one person. This gentleman right here, right in the front. [applause] hello, mr. President. I am a student of this Beautiful University with a Gorgeous Group of people. Im going to give a little bit of contact to my a little bit of context to my question. The smartest man i know is my dad. My dad was born in cuba. When he was seven years old, he went to the United States to get an opportunity. He lived all of his life there from Community College to doctorate, and he managed to do a lot of things because of the open arm policy towards him. Can makeny immigrants the immigration, because there is still this open arm. By an administration but an administration that is intending to go after you is saying they will not have a closeddoor policy. In your opinion, what do you think that today, the stand of the usa is for offshore innovators for people that want to go to harvard, m. I. T. , yale, and what would be the damages of the usa closing their doors to these young innovators . I hope you have two amazing last months of presidency. Pres. Obama thank you, thank you very much. [applause] pres. Obama first of all, i know your father is very proud that you said he is the smartest man he ever knew. I hope moliere and sasha i would say and sasha the same thing about me. [laughter] pres. Obama america is a nation of immigrants. Those of you who visited america, if you walk in an american city, not just new york or los angeles, but st. Louis or indianapolis or columbus, ohio, if you walk down the street, you see people that look like they could be from any place, because the fact is that, except for the native american population, s, everybody in america came from someplace else. All of us are immigrants, and that has been our greatest strength because we have been able to attract talent from everywhere. I use this as an example. You notice that the United States did really well in the olympics. Some of that is because we are a big country, a wealthy country, so we have all these Training Facilities and we can do all kinds of best equipment, and all of that is true. But you know what, i mean, china is a bigger country and spends a lot of money also. The big advantage america has if you look at our team, actually two big advantages first, we passed something called title ix many years ago that requires women get the same opportunities in sports as men do, and that is why [applause] pres. Obama one of the reasons the American Team did so well is the women were amazing. And because they have got opportunities, right, which teaches us something about the need to make sure women and men, boys and girls get the same opportunities, because you do better when everybody has a chance, not just someone. But the second thing, when you look at the u. S. Olympic team, and there are all kinds of different sorts of people of all different shapes and sizes, and part of it is because we draw from a bigger genetic pool than anybody, right . We have people who these little gymnasts, they are like this big. Simone biles came by the white house. She is a tiny little thing. Amazing athlete. And we have Michael Phelps who is 68, and his shoulders are this big, and that is good for swimming. He couldnt do gymnastics, but he is a good swimmer. The point is, when you have all this talent from all these different places, then you actually, as a team, do better, and that has been the great gift of america. Now, what we have to do, not just in the United States but in all countries, is to find a way to have an open, smart immigration policy, but it has to be orderly and lawful. I think that part of what has happened in the United States is that, even though the amount of illegal immigration that is happening has actually gone down while i have been president , the perception is that it has just gone up. Partly this is because it used to be that immigrants primarily stayed in texas and arizona and new mexico, border countries, or in florida, and now they are moving into parts of the country where they are not used to seeing immigrants, and it makes people concerned. Who are these people, and are they taking our jobs and opportunities and so forth . My argument has been that no country can have completely open borders, because if they did, then nationality and citizenship wouldnt mean anything. And obviously, if we had completely open borders, then you would have tens of millions of people who would suddenly the coming who would suddenly be coming into the United States, noth by the way would necessarily be good for the countries where they leave, because in some places like in africa, you have doctors and nurses and scientists and engineers who would all try to leave, then you have a brain drain, and they are not developing their own countries. You have to have some rules, but my hope is that those rules are set up in a way that continues to invite talented young people to come in and contribute and to make a good life for themselves. That we also though have to do what we also, though, have to do is to invest in countries that are sending migrants so that they can develop themselves. You mentioned cuba, for example, where your father fled. He left in part because they didnt feel there was enough opportunity there. Part of the reason i said lets reopen our diplomatic relations with cuba is to see if we could start encouraging greater opportunity and freedom in cuba. Because if you have people who have been able to leave cuba and do really well in the United States, that means they have enough talent that they could do well by staying at home in cuba. There are enormously talented people here in peru. I dont want all the young people in peru to suddenly [applause] pres. Obama i dont want you to feel as if you have to go to new york in order to be successful. You should be able to be successful right here in lima. [applause] pres. Obama so this is true in the americas, it is true in europe, where obviously they have been flooded, and it has been very controversial with migrants. Some of them have been displaced from war in syria, but some are just coming for economic reasons from africa. I just left meetings with european leaders, and we discussed the fact that if we are investing more in development in those african countries and encouraging greater rule of law and less corruption and more opportunity in those countries, people are less likely to want to come to germany or italy for their futures, because they can feel they can make a future where they are. But this is an example of what i was saying earlier. If we think only about very narrow terms about the borders and what is good for us and ignore what is happening everywhere else, eventually, it will have an impact on us whether we like it or not, because the world is much smaller than it used to be, all right . Ok. Lets see, you got a [applause] pres. Obama all right, young lady right there, in the black, yeah. Yes, you. [cheers] thank you. Oh my god, thank you for this amazing opportunity. More than a question i have to introduce myself first. I am jennifer and i am from venezuela. We already talked a little bit about my country, but i just want to thank you for talking about the womens opportunity. I am the ceo and founder of a social initiative that promotes values for women around the world. I have a daughter. It is hard to be an entrepreneur. You have seen support of women empowerment. You supported a candidate who was a woman, hillary. You were supported by your wife, michelle. Pres. Obama michelle is amazing. [cheers] [applause] im sure. I am sure of that. I am thrilled that you have a lot of support. I want some special advice for female interpreters, for those who have to some special advice for female entrepreneurs, those who have to try a little bit more, should i be a mother or should i be a professional i truly believe we can be both at the same time, but i would like to hear it from you. Advice for all potential women who will become mothers, on behalf of all my fellows, thank you for this amazing opportunity. [applause] there are more fellows looking right now from their countries because they could not come to peru, so thank you to all of the fellows watching us right now. Pres. Obama great question. [applause] pres. Obama michelle probably would have more to say about this because, you know, she has gone through it as a professional woman, but let me offer a few observations. First of all, the leaders and the men in every country need to understand that the countries that are most successful are going to be the countries that give opportunities to girls and women and not just boys and men. Now that [applause] pres. Obama and if you look, if you look at which countries are doing best, most advanced, grow the fastest, it is partly because you cant have half the population uneducated, not working, out of the house, not in leadership positions, and expect to be as good as a country where 100 of the people are getting a good education and having opportunities and can do Amazing Things, starting a business or entering into politics or what have you. So this is not just a problem for girls and women. Men have to also recognize this is good for you. And if you are a strong man, you should not be threatened that women are doing well. You should be proud that women are doing well, and families where women have opportunity, that means they will bring in more income, which means the family as a whole is going to do better. And lets be honest, sometimes that whole machismo attitude makes it harder for women to succeed, and sometimes that is coming even from those who love them. So men, those of you who end up being fathers, you have got to lift up your daughters. Just telling them they are pretty is not enough. You have got to tell them they are smart and tell them they are ambitious and give them opportunity. [applause] pres. Obama so once you have a whole country thinking in those terms, then you need to start having policies that can support women, and the most important thing in addition to making sure the girls from an early age are getting a good education, and that they are not being told, oh, you can only do certain engineering is a mans job or being a scientist, that is a mans job. No, no, girls can do everything. You cannot you can be a teacher if you want, wonderful profession, but traditionally women sometimes are told there are a few things they can do, nurse, teacher, as opposed to anything. Once you have done that, then you have to recognize that the big conflict that women have in the professional world has to do rearing. Ly and child for biological reasons, women have more of a burden than men do, but it is not just biology , it is also sociology. Mens attitudes whose mens attitudes of, well, i dont have to do as much. Even in my marriage with michelle, i like to think of myself as a modern enlightened man, but i will admit it, michelle did more work than i did with sasha and malia. So part of what society can do is they can help with having smart policies for childcare. One of the hardest things for professional women, particularly when their children are still small and not yet in school is, who is going to take care of my baby when i am working . And how do i make sure that they are safe and trusted . Making sure that governments have policies in place that help you know, having a motherinlaw who helps is also very useful. [laughter] pres. Obama but not everybody has the option where, you know, they have family members who are close by. That is an example of something we have to really work on. Then we have to put pressure on institutions to treat women equally when it comes to getting loans to start a business. You know, up until just maybe 20 years ago, in some places, in the United States, even. Sign a loanhad to document with a bank even though it was the wifes business. Even if the woman was the one making the money, it was her idea, her investment, she was doing all the work, because of these old stereotypes, that kind of mentality and discrimination still exists in a lot of institutions. So we have to push back against those, fight against those. Women who are successful, you have to then fight for the women who are the younger women who are coming behind you and make sure that you are changing some of these attitudes. If you are high up in a bank, you have got to make sure that these policies are good for women. If you succeed in politics, if if you succeed in politics, then you have to help promote and encourage women who are coming behind you. So the last thing i guess i would say would be i know that michelle says this to our daughters. You can be a wonderful mom and have a wonderful family and have a really successful career. You may have to kind of not try to do everything all at the same time exactly. You may have to time things out a little bit and have a husband who supports taking turns a little bit. So it may be that when the child is very young, you are not doing something that is as hard, because having a really young child is already really hard, and you have to sleep sometimes. But then as the child gets older, maybe that is when maybe your husband is doing something that gives him more time to support that child. There is going to have to be finding the right balance throughout your life in order to be successful, but congratulations on the good work you are doing. [applause] pres. Obama i have got time for i only have time for two more questions. I will call on that gentleman up there with the glasses. Blue shirt. Right here. Wait, wait, wait. Let him ask his question. Then i will ask the last one. Hello, mr. President. It is really an honor to ask you this question. I am studying marketing. [cheers] and my question is about what advice will you give to peruvian students that they are starting to think different. What advice will you give in a world where the bad is good and the good is bad . What advices would you give them to chase their dreams, make the country better, not peru, just worldwide . That would be my question. President obama you are already doing so well, i dont know that i can give you the perfect advice, but i will tell you what i tell my young people who work in the white house and who i meet in the United States, because i think what is true in the United States is what is true for you as well. We live in a time where you were always seeing bad news. Bad news gets a lot of attention. But the truth is in so many ways, the world is better now than it was 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 100 years ago. People are healthier today, they are wealthier today, they are better educated today. The world, if you look over all, is less violent than it was. Look at the 20th century. Millions of people dying everywhere. Look at latin america and the wars that were taking place everywhere across the continent. So you actually are living in a time of relative peace and historic prosperity. And i say that so that you should feel optimistic about the future. You shouldnt feel pessimistic. You are always seeing bad news, but the truth is the world is in a place where the world can solve its problems and be even better 20 years from now or 50 years from now. We have to start with that hope, that optimism inside of you. If you dont feel that way, you dont bother to try to have an impact. You think, god, every politician is corrupt, all the governments are terrible. People are greedy, people are mean, so i have just going to look out for myself, and then nothing gets better. You have to start knowing things have gotten better and can continue to get better. Number two, i always tell young people, and i dont know if this translates well in spanish, but i say, worry more about what you want to do and not what you want to be. Here is what i mean. I think a lot of people, they say to themselves, i want to be rich, or they say to themselves, i want to be powerful, or i want to be the president , or i want to be a ceo, or i want to be a rap star. So they say, they have this idea, but the people i know who are most successful usually they are successful because they found something that they really care about, and they worked at it and became really good at it, and over time, because they were so good at what they did, they ended up being rich or they ended up being powerful and influential, but in the meantime, they were constantly doing what they enjoy doing and learning, and that is what made them successful. So what i would say to all of you is find something you care deeply about. If you care about poor children, then find a way right now that you can start helping. Dont wait. Dont say, someday when i am president of peru, i will help were children. Poor children. Find an organization or create an organization that is helping poor kids learn or be exposed to new experiences. You care about the environment, dont wait. In addition to your studies, you can start having an impact right now on trying to improve your local community or trying to be involved in some of the work being done around things like climate change. The point is that once you decide what you really care about, there are ways to now get involved and pursue that passion. If you pursue that and get good at it, you will not change the world overnight. Nobody does. I mean, i eventually at the age of 45 became a senator and then president of the United States, but i worked for 25 years in poor communities and worked on issues, and hopefully i was doing some good even before i was famous or powerful so that you know, if i hadnt ended up being president , i could still look back and say i worked on the things that i cared about and i got something done that , were important. That, i think is the most important advice i have for you. [applause] president obama all right, last question. It is a womans turn. All the men, you can put your hands down. It is a womans turn. Ok, go ahead right there. Ok, first of all my name is melissa [cheers] once again, i want to welcome you to the country, and on behalf of the whole audience, i would like to thank you for the amazing opportunity. As it is well known, during your presidency, you have stepped up and invested. You made it yourself or maybe the teams you will have led. And that i believe shows how you reaffirmed your belief in direction on how you want to leave the past behind. What is your advice to us that would like to leave some mistakes, learn from them and let the past be the past . Thank you. [applause] president obama well, you know, you should not ignore the past, you should learn from it. You should learn from history. And learn from experience. The truth is that you know, right before i was in peru, i was in europe, and i spoke of my trip in athens. I went to the parthenon, the birthplace of democracy. You look at all these buildings from ancient greece, and you try to imagine all the things that were happening at that time and it seems very long ago, but the fact of the matter is that humanity keeps on making the same mistakes. We oftentimes find ourselves dealing with the same problems and the same issues, so studying our past and studying our history is very, very important. But the main thing i tell you and i tell my own daughters is you cant be trapped by the past. There is a difference between understanding your past you need to know the history of peru. If you live in the United States, you need to know how america came about, and that includes both the amazing wonderful things but also the bad things. If you want to understand america today, you have to understand slavery and you have to understand the history of immigration, how the debates we are having today about immigration are not that different from when the irish or the italians came and people were saying, we cant have any more italians and we cant have any more irish. If you dont know that, you will not understand the patterns that we are having today. But the point is is that we have the power to make our own history. We dont have to repeat the same mistakes. We dont have to just be confined to what has happened before or what is going on today. We can think differently and imagine differently and do things differently. But the one thing that we should remember though is that, even as we try to do things that are new, we should remember that change generally does not happen overnight. It happens over time. I say that to young people because sometimes they get impatient. In the United States, when people say to me, why havent you eliminated racial discrimination, but we have made a lot of progress since when i was born. In terms of human history, if you think on the scale of hundreds of years or thousands of years, within 50 years, the changes that have taken place have been amazing. So you have to understand that, even though we can think differently, societies dont move immediately. It requires hard work, and you have to persuade people. Sometimes you take two steps forward and then you take one step back, and you shouldnt be discouraged when that happens. Because history doesnt just move in a smooth, straight line. The good news is that we have more access to information than we have ever had with more. Ever had before. Young people are in a position to change the world faster than ever before. And i am confident that if you are respectful of people and you look for what you have in common with humanity, if you stay true to the values of kindness and respect and reason and trying to live together in peace, the world will keep getting better, and i will be looking forward to all the Amazing Things that you do in the years to calm. To come. Ok, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. [applause] president obama thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [lyrics in spanish] tomorrow president obama holds a conference in lima, peru before heading back to the u. S. We will show you that live at 6 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Announcer 1 earlier today, president elect trump met with 2012 president ial nominee mitt romney at a golf course in new jersey to discuss the president ial transition process. Before departing, mr. Romney gave some brief remarks to the media. Was it a productive meeting . Mitt romney went great. We had a farreaching conversation with regards to the various theaters of the world where the interests of the United States are of real significance. We discussed those areas and exchanged our views on the topics, a very thorough and indepth discussion in the time we had, and appreciate the chance to speak with the president elect and look forward to the coming administration. Thank you. Do you still think he is a con artist . Did you apologize . Governor, would you take a job if he offered you one . Governor, what stood out to you . [indiscernible] announcer 1 president elect trump also met with retired general james mattis, who is reportedly under consideration for the position of defense secretary. Following the meeting, the president elect spoke briefly to reporters. President elect, will you gender will you choose general mattis . Donald trump all i can say he is the real deal, the real deal, thank you. Will he have a place in your administration . Donald trump we will see. What stood out to you . Donald trump just a brilliant, wonderful man, and we will see what happens. He is the real deal. Do you want the job . General, what stood out to you . [indiscernible] announcer 1 follow the transition of government on cspan as donald trump becomes the 45th president of the United States and republicans maintain control of the house and senate. We will take you to key events as they happen without interruption. Watch live on cspan and on demand at cspan. Org or listen on our free cspan radio app. Thank you all, very much, welcome to congress. Journal,s washington live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up sunday morning, alliance for justice president and Judicial PracticeNetwork Director will be on. They will talk about the impact of resident elect donald trump on the makeup of the Supreme Court, the confirmation process, and the cases ahead for the court. Also, a discussion on u. S. Transatlantic relations under a trump presidency, the future of nato, and present trumps trade policy. Join the discussion. Announcer 1 now Supreme CourtJustice Sonja Sotomayor talks about the court, Justice Scalia, and gender bias. She also addresses a question about the president ial election results. This is about an hour and 10 minutes. [applause] well, a lovely way to spend the night. Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much for being here. It is an honor to be here. Im Diana Ingraham, the executive director at hill central Naval Hospital, and we have lots of things going on in this building. Im very curious, how many folks have never been in the building before . Welcome. [laughter] Diana Ingraham check out all the materials on your seats. This is a special year for hill center. I think everyone got one of our Preservation Fund brochures. We are celebrating the fifth anniversary of hill Centers Opening and the 150th anniversary of the first Naval Hospital now the old naval , hospital in washington. It takes a lot of time, energy, and funding to keep this beautiful 150yearold building in its pristine state. Please join our 150th anniversary circle so that we can have these beautiful programs for your greatgrandchildren, greatgrand nieces, and new babies. Tonight, please join me in thanking the capital hill can Capitol Hill Community foundation for supporting free programming at hill center. A big round of applause. [applause] Diana Ingraham please take a moment to turn off your mobile devices, and hill press is an awardwinning journalist, author , provocateur, broadcaster and he has created a very special series top of the hill with bill press, conversations with the fascinating people of our time. You, bill, for all that you do for hill center. [applause] Diana Ingraham it is such an honor. Bill that is the provocateur. Diana ingraham maybe not tonight. It is such an honor to welcome hill center sonja maria sotomayor, associate justice of the Supreme Court of United States. Its a very simple format. Bill and her honor will be in conversation for about half an hour, and then we will open it up to q a. We are taping this for our youtube channel, so charlotte will be passing around the microphone. Please wait for the microphone, and try to be crisp and quick in questions for the justice. She has requested that we not photograph or videotape the conversation, so lets respect her wishes on that front, and let me turn it over to build. Bill we are ready to go. Thank you, thank you, diana. We have had bishops and nuns and u. S. Senators and members of the president s cabinet, never a justice of the Supreme Court. It is nice. [applause] nice Justice Sotomayor it is nice occasionally being a first. Bill you made your life out of it. As a reporter of the members of the White House Press corps, i was there in the east room of the white house when president obama announced your white house house. You were there with your family. Its so exciting to see you settle into the court and exert a strong presence there. So we welcome you tonight. Justice sotomayor thank you. I dont think i have ever told you, just before i entered the east conference room, i was walking down the hall with the president and Vice President , and because they have longer legs than i do, they were walking really faster than i was so at a certain point i , whispered, please stop. [laughter] Justice Sotomayor and they both simultaneously turned around, faced me and smiled. At that moment i had an out of body experience. It was as if my conscious self flew up somewhere in the sky and looked down at what was happening, and i realized that it was my way of disconnecting from the overwhelming emotions i was experiencing and giving myself an opportunity to do what i had to do, which was give a speech. But i dont know if i hadnt done that whether i could have and maintained my calm. But i thought it would end the next day. It continued for about a year and a half. [laughter] Justice Sotomayor and took a while to come back down to earth and now im fully here. ,but it was a special day that day for me. Bill now justice there is in an 800pound gorilla back in the room which i want to tackle right away if i can. And ask you, are you in any way apprehensive about what happened in this nation last tuesday . Justice sotomayor i am going to demure from answering that question that way. I will answer it in a different way which is, i think that this is the time where every good person has an obligation both to continue being heard and to continue doing the right thing. We cant afford for a president to fail, and it is true for those who tell us that we have to support that which he does which is right and help guide him to those right decisions in whichever way we can find to do that but we cant afford to , despair, and we cant afford to give up on pursuing the values that we and others have fought so hard to achieve. And so for me, this is a challenge. So i am going to continue doing what i think is the right thing. And its a challenge we all have to face. And maintain. Bill thank you. I think you answered it the right way with the right answer. [applause] bill one thing for sure is that the new president will be naming probably very early in his term another nominating another person to the Supreme Court of the United States. For the last nine months with the death of Antonin Scalia in february, the court has been operating shorthanded with eight , just eight justices. How is that handicapped the work of the court, if it has . Justice sotomayor well, as you know last year, we were quite fortunate in part because my Dear Colleague and friend Justice Scalia passed away in february, which was later in the term. We had already heard half of our Justice Sotomayor we managed to split and only four cases. We tried very hard to Work Together to come to consensus when we could. I think anyone who is familiar with our jurisprudence can identify the cases where we compromise. Avoid the was to the cases onsolve other narrow grounds. Fedex the question, why dont we do that all the time. Begs the question, why dont we do that all the time. Is reason we dont do that there is a need to resolve a question that is perplexing the lower court. The Circuit Courts are split because when we hear a case, it is because the Circuit Court exists and injustice is being applied differently across the country. The reason to answer is to decide that situation. Thatrowly decided case avoids the issue that is perplexing the lower courts of atuating the unfairness split country on that legal question. Situation anddeal it is not a format that i think any of the justices, and i only speak in respect to myself, we respect we function better as one because we can resolve the questions we need to. Bill you mentioned Justice Scalia, your friend, justice cohost,when i was the the question i would ask, how can you stand to sit across from bob novak or pat buchanan. Some may ask that question of you and Justice Scalia. How do you get along with the more conservative members and how do you guys come together in your deciding these issues . Justice sotomayor because we respect each other. That, as much as i care, about this country, about our constitution and our system of government, they care as much as well. What it isgreeing on in a particular situation, but is not ill will or from evil intent. It is from a genuine believe belief that my answer is the right one. [laughter] Justice Sotomayor if you look at those cases where we are writing opinions from , this opinions where people think we are being harsh with each other, most of the time you will notice that the comesajority of harshness from the loser. It is a lot easier to forgive a loser. The fear of the majority just one and it is a lot easier to forgive when you understand that someone is articulating their reactions because they want to shake you and please see it my way. I think we all understand that passion. We all appreciate what animates it, what drives us, how hard we work to get to our individual goal and then to express what is important to us for others to understand. I think that is one of the reasons we can remain friends. As you know, the two must the two most unlikely friends on the court work Justice Ginsburg and Justice Scalia. I dont think many people know that he and i agree about 7075 of the time. And in some areas more than others. , as you libertarian know, and we found Common Ground in a lot of areas in criminal law. Much fort take thatnal person to realize the person you are fighting against today you may need for a vote tomorrow. It certainly is practical, i think, to recognize that when we disagree, it is not because we dislike each other as people. Humorous. And to sit in a conference with him dittysomeone is singing a of some sort from his childhood. I have to look at him and say, i dont know what that is. Eating. You have to hear him come back from a night of oysters and one of our Favorite Places in the city. He liked to doing new and interesting things. Theres a picture of him and Justice Ginsburg on a camel. [laughter] my point is,ayor and a a devoted father devoted husband. Those guys are important to me, as they should be two other people. It wasnt as hard as people imagine. I think you have to accept and this life that people will disagree with you and perhaps on some things that are fundamental to you. If youre working together, you have to find a way to breach that void and make a relationship where and maintain a relationship where you can continue talking. Bill i was lucky enough to interview Justice Scalia a couple of times and Justice Breyer. I remember interviewing him after he made the case that the constitution is a living document. Then i interviewed Justice Scalia in front of a big audience who emphatically said no, the constitution is a dead document. Justice sotomayor he would usually sit there and pound the table about a half a dozen times. Bill do you care to weigh in on that . Justice sotomayor no. I say when i spoke to Justice Breyer he was tell me he only conversationsse because it was so easy to excite me. I am aware of those conversations. I think everyone is. You are seven years now on the court, correct . Justice sotomayor my eighth. Back, was there any one case that was the toughest one for you to decide or come to grips with, or a couple of them . Justice sotomayor im not trying to be cute or avoid your question, that i will answer in a different way, which is, i think every case is hard. And every case is hard for one simple reason. When we decide a case, we automatically choose a winner. We declare ation loser. The one thing im very conscious of, much more than i ever was when i was on the lower courts, as you know i was a District Court judge, i had not appreciated before coming to this court how much comfort i took from knowing that they were courts above me that could fix my worst mistakes. There is no court above me. When we render a decision, we had really declared someone entitled to a right, to a claim, and weve also told the other person, the other side, then a right they thought they had is gone. Wasclaim they felt important enough to bring to the Supreme Court had not been recognized. Consciousm much more case abouty single what my decision means and how much heartache it is going to cost a group of people or institution. And that makes every case really tough. Bill that is a burden that every justice bears, im sure, and you are a historic figure as. He first latina in the court do you feel that is a special burden or special responsibility . Justice sotomayor no. Ahave often said, im not latina justice. I am a justice. I am a latina person, but im also Everything Else that i have done and experienced in my life. Catholic, a child brought up by a single mother, ivy league educated, a former prosecutor, a former corporate lawyer representing some of those big corporations out there, ok . A District Court judge, a Circuit Court judge, theres not one part of my life that defines sonia. I am an amalgam of all of those experiences. I dont feel a particular responsibility because one part of me is latina. My responsibility is to do the right thing for the country and so i dont think that anything enhances that sense or minimizes it in any other way either. Bill you talk about in this wonderful book my beloved world , a lot about, when you get , this isracticing law still a tough time for women in the law. As a woman, did you feel you had equal opportunity . Was it tougher . As the situation for women in the Legal Profession improved . It is likeomayor when i tell all students, have one professional regret in life and i look at them and say, that is a disingenuous statement. Could i haveake made and still got on the Supreme Court . My answer to that question is i should have clerked, which i view is an important career choice i shouldve made differently. Putting that one aside, some of talked about the things that people called you . Justice sotomayor that is hurtful. Exceedingly hurtful. Nomination process when there were some people saying i wasnt smart enough. Now, you sit there and look at my record. I graduated summa cum laude princetonp of from way before grade inflation. Fairly decent record there. I was the editor of the yale law journal. I was the managing editor of the International Law journal. I have been a fairly successful prosecutor and i think successful as a judge, as a lower court judge and it was hurtful for me to hear people say that i wasnt smart enough. And when i thought about it, i realized that it is the language that many paint when with when many to positions of with when it comes to positions of responsibility. Either not smart enough, not creative enough, not something enough. With me they said i was too tough. [laughter] Justice Sotomayor you know i mean my former colleague and i Justice Scalia sparred on who would ask the most questions and i certainly didnt think that i was harsh on lawyers but i was described and am described as very aggressive. He wasnt described as aggressive and boy, was he. If you look at the two of us, i may have been tough but i was never harsh. He could be both. But that adjective wasnt used to describe him. Yes there are gender differences not only in those ways but having a marshal when i was on the courts below say can you imagine anyone calling a federal male judge honey . Maybe his or her wife or spouse, but it would be unlikely. Or sitting in a room as a lawyer and a roomful of male lawyers and someone turning to me and saying could you give us coffee, please . I didnt have to respond then. I was working with a mentor and a colleague until the day he died remained a dear, dear friend but he turned to the , lawyer and said the phone is over there and i will give you the number for a coffee shop. She is a lawyer. What would i have said . To this day im not sure. My friend didnt give me a chance but i know that it was hurtful when it happened. I think every woman has had a similar situation occurred in her professional life or something close to it because it is a natural sort of part of our lives in the professional world. People dont hear often what they are saying. And they often dont think about how they address others and the impact it is having on the other worse and. So yes, but i dont know in the end that it impeded me much. Bill look where you are. The justice loves taking questions from the audience and we will get to that just after one more. I want you to get your questions ready and charlotte has the microphone if she is nearby. Just as, in terms of kind of a couple of questions in one. What inspired you in your life to go into, to want to study law and to practice law and when you were at princeton were you helped by affirmative action and this is still important today . Justice soma