greetings, welcome. i am the founder and president of the progressive form. america's only speaker organization expressly dedicated

to the best values and exclusively located in texas. thank you. [cheers] [applause] we are delighted to present to you tonight sonia sotomayor, who is launching her first book, a memoir entitled "my beloved world." please turn off your cell phone. the beautiful flowers on stage are from lovely puerto rico. [applause] puerto rico is the roots of justice sonia sotomayor's and her family.

thank you, c-span booktv. thank you for being here to broadcast this to our friends on television. thank you for joining us. [applause] [applause] i am excited that two other guests are with us tonight, katharine hubbard and her husband. [applause] is one of my favorite people. please stand, the mayor and the first lady. [applause] [cheers]

you can visit our website and have access to other great authors and notable people. just go to our website at aggressive form.org. we are pleased to give a look copy to everyone tonight. just together the distribution table in the grand foyer. additional books are also for sale at the bookshop. after justice sotomayor's presentation, she will join me for a q&a session. i should say that supreme court rules do not allow us to discuss court cases of the past or present or future, but we could build deeply into the fascinating story of her life. just as sotomayor lived.

i cried when i read the book, "my beloved world." i also laughed. it is a wonderful book. i believe it will be more and been a bestseller. it will become a classic american success story and required reading in high schools and colleges. i am amazed of the e-mails we have been getting from students filled with exclamation points and young people who connect with sonia sotomayor. in her book, i was especially impressed by the scene of the sonia sotomayor and her brother as kids, doing their homework with her mother, who was also there inspiration. she was also studying to become a registered nurse, two generations encouraging each other. just as sotomayor's american success story should replace the

myth. yes, her story is about individuals becoming a nation. but it's also about community. family and negotiating cultural boundaries. it is about overcoming poverty and disease and insecurity and self-discovery and growing as an authentic person. it is 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 heard she was born in the bronx and raised in the public housing projects. 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 women's auxiliary corps. she was diagnosed with diabetes

at the age of seven years old and her father died he was nine years old. she and her younger brother were raised by a single mother. her brother is now a doctor. she graduated aside victorian of her high school class and she graduated from princeton university summa cum laude, receiving the highest honors as a graduate. while at yale, she added that the law journal. she could have become a highly paid lawyer. but she went right into public service, becoming an assistant district attorney serving people of new york area she served in almost all levels of the judicial system, including private legal practice, as well as years on the bench. in 2009, president barack obama nominated sonia sotomayor is a

one -- as the 111th justice. i give you now just as sonia sotomayor. [cheers] [applause] >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [cheers] [applause] >> hello. thank you. [applause] [applause] [cheers]

>> when i got here in 2009, i met a whole bunch of texans for it because everywhere in this large state, i have been repeatedly invited and when you get a new job, you are a little busy. so i haven't been able to come here yet. but it is a tribute to the warmth of the people that i met that have been confirmed in a few hours but i have 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, new york, over the weekend. as he saw on tv, i have been back and forth a lot between the two. [laughter] this is my worst trip outside. i am delighted that this is my first trip to texas.

i'm delighted to be here. [applause] [cheers] [applause] i wanted to visit more than one city and i am going to austin. but i can't visit every place i want to. i still have a day job and only a few days to visit cities. but i made a promise the promise on television so you can hold me to it that i will be back to visit other cities soon. [applause] now, part of the reason i was able to come, it was randall and suzanne moran, the founders who

put this together for me. they have expended every once in courtesy to me. [applause] i am surrounded by flowers, some of which i describe in the book. i thank you. i'm here to talk to you about my book and about what my book is about. when i started to write it, there was one thing i wanted to accomplish. when you write a memoir, and i have read many throughout my life, you sometimes come away asking yourself the question,

did i learn anything new about this person? regrettably i have read books and thought to myself, i did not learn much that i didn't already know from the news. i don't want to write that kind of book. i wanted to write something different. something where the reader could come away and say to themselves, i feel like i know her. so what "my beloved world" intended to do was to let you into my heart and soul. and in doing so, i hope to show you who i was and also to show you a little bit of you.

there was a purpose for doing this. the purpose is captured in one part of my book. it is probably the deibert passage. so i read it to you because it summarizes one of the very important reason. it is on page 178 and it reads, when a young person, even a gifted one, grows up without appropriate living examples of what she may aspire to become, whether a lawyer or scientist or leader in any realm, her goal is remain abstract. such models appear in books on the news. however inspiring through the years, they are ultimately too remote to be true.

let alone influential. a role model in the flesh provides more than inspiration. his or her very existence is confirmation of possibility and drives out every reason to doubt. saying yes, someone loves me. it was my hope that every child in every adult who read this book would say what i said during my nomination speech. yes, she is an ordinary person just like me. and if that ordinary person can do it, so cannot. that is what i tried to do. [applause]

this is what i tried to do in the stories of this book. to tell you my experiences and my feelings. i am finally giving you the little sonia and then giving you the reflections of the adult sonia. this is not easy to do. put myself back in time and tell you what i was feeling. but i did it for a purpose. that purpose was to tell you what i learned from these experiences. in the process to have the hope that every single person in this room who has experienced even

one of the difficulties that i had faced in life, and those difficulties are growing up in poverty, having a chronic disease, and surprising how many people suffer from a chronic disease. and live their lives never talking about it. a child raised by a single parent to facing discrimination. or it is about my background of simply being afraid. i think most people experience this. we all create a bravado about we are okay, we can do this. it's easy to say, but it's hard

to do. so i talk about those things in an ordinary way that i can. as openable way as i could. in order to give people courage. there was a second purpose in this book. the books that i love make me think on different levels. they deliver more than one message. there is a beauty in reading books and discovering. you will learn about how i use books after my father death to escape the unhappiness in my

home. they became a rocket ship out of unhappiness. a rocket ship the landed me on far universes of the world. i now briefly have the resolve to do it. but i found india and africa and places that i had heard about on television but never imagined knowing. and i learned about them through looks. i hope that every child in this audience and any child that hears me speaking understands that television is wonderful. but words paint pictures. they do so in a way that nothing else can. i am going to redo one passage

of my book that describes a scene in my childhood that will prove my point for everyone in this room. because i think that these passages paint a picture of my grandmother. although it's nice that you have the photographs, but it also describes a piece of my life in a way that i can paint a picture without having a photograph of it. so i'm reading from page 15 of my book. and it reads that my friend was going to a party and she wanted me to come with her to buy the chicken. i was the only one who ever went

with her. her apartment was a safe haven from my parents forms of home. since those years i have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love and respect. for me, it was already back. i was determined to grow up and be just like her. at the same exuberance. she had very dark eyes and a long face with a pointed nose framed by long and straight hair. nothing like my short curly mop.

but otherwise we recognize in each other a kindred spirit and enjoyed each other's presence beyond explanation. we were so much alike that people called me little mercedes , which was a source of great pride for me. those who are closest to me in age also had a special connection. but even dawson never wanted to go on saturday morning because of the snow. it wasn't just the chicken. they had baby goats and pens and pigeons and ducks up against the

long while in the cages were stacked so high that she would climb up a ladder to see into the toppers. the birds would be clucking and screaming. there were chickens with me nice watching you. it's one of my favorite area are my favorite parts of the book. [applause] you know, at the end, everybody learns about my mother. one day she sent me, no one has talked about your friend.

she really was the most important in my life. so i used this book to tell the story of my grandmother and friend. there are some people that don't get to know their grandmothers or grandfathers read but those who do know what a special kind of love that it is. for every grandmother and grandfather, i hope you will see a piece of yourself. i believe that they are special. that brings me to a critically important part. during the confirmation process,

i always have set my marshals when i do this. i'm sorry i can't go up there, you're too far up their. [laughter] you know, i was here earlier and i looked out here and i said oh, this is lovely. wow, is it big. [laughter] but i won't go as far back as i want to. any of you guys can still see me. but if i find that i walk among you, my family called me hot pepper because i could never sit still. i still can't. [laughter] so people are asking me about my father and where he came from and what his family was like. i really didn't have much to tell him. they were asking me a lot about my own mother.

there were parts of her story that i knew, but there were big parts. a lot i can picture. some of the information that came out during the confirmation hearing proved to be wrong. in fact, i didn't know where my father was born. i thought it was from the town he had left in puerto rico. but he was born in a different town. [laughter] and i will tell you one of the things that surprised me to no end and sees me the knowledge of that. when the people who are helping me do the research on my family went to the local priest, priest

greeted them and said to the person who is asking for me, i knew she would then appear. we were just waiting. and he reached behind him and pulled out the book with my father and his siblings. so it's a very touching moment. the second thing happened during my confirmation hearing. every morning before i went to the white house or the senate, i would call my mother. just to hear her voice. i don't talk to my mother every day. i broke that habit a long time

ago. [applause] [laughter] they are never going to like me saying that. [laughter] but one night i forgot to call her after she had been used to be calling her and she was frantic. and i get busy, so i call her. but i try to do it spontaneously so she doesn't worry as much. i found myself calling her every moment during a stressful time. because hearing her voice gave me strength to realize that as

much as i knew her, as much as we have gone through life together, but i really have been spent that much time talking to her about her life and her experiences. i talked a lot about my feelings. we are all self-employed, you know. but not enough about her feelings. one of the things that i started with us to ask the question i never asked her before. it was were you ever in love with data. to understand the background, my father had become an overhaul at in my life was unhappy. one of the greatest gifts of

writing this book is finding out about a father i never knew love story that i never knew about him and my mom. zweibel read to you from my book because of all of the chapters in this book. the one i love the most is chapter seven. it is the chapter that i learned about my mother by just talking to her. it wasn't clever to write this book nearly 50 years without the event of that fattier than i seem to have a true understanding of my mother's life. for most of my life, my relationship was defined by the

narrow attitude with which i watched as a child. my theory was hardly more sophisticated than enlisting psychiatric help for him. my father's uncle out with some constant conversation that might have caused me to question what i thought. he has virtually no memory of my father or the time before his death. so with the vocabulary of hindsight, i seem to have experience the intensity of my mother's grief and five some

form of clinical depression that was never treated but that somehow resolve itself eventually. i had never before in all of these years past been very intelligent and perceptive woman for her own version of events. i would be startled by what i uncovered and even grateful to me a happier version of my father and mother than i ever knew. the stories that come to life are all the more precious to me for having been captured as my mother's memory, growing gracefully with age.

sometimes those that you are closest to are those that you know the least. the rest of this chapter is that story. i hope you will read it to find that you will like it. [applause] and in this i passed on the greatest lesson in this book to every person in this auditorium who has a living parent or grandparent and/or uncle. anyone who is alive who has a memory of your family's history, it took me 55 years to get to this. he said down and talk to them. we listen to their stories with

an open mind. you learn about yourself through their eyes. you know what happens? i know because i did it. you hear the stories at the sunday table or when you are visiting at christmas. and you say okay. it is the exclamation point of here we go again. okay? [laughter] we all do it. how often have you heard the story that you think you know. you think you understand the reasons behind it and why. so i'm giving you a free lesson. do not do what i did.

don't wait until they're not here any longer. do it whenever you have a chance. i have to tell you i took the time during the busiest part of my life that i ever had, becoming an assistant court justice. and i did it for personal reasons. personal reasons or because i wanted us to hold on. i wanted to hold onto sonia. my life has moved at an incredible pace. we think that sometimes it just happens we forget to be

grateful. i did not want to forget. this book is my memory. book is here when i won't be. it will also tell me to remember while i am here. but it is also a tribute to the moment that i took, part of my sleep, part of my spirit vacation time. i've taken a week off here and there. every day of my last three summers, i treated this book like gold. i got up early in the morning.

i worked every day from that time early in the morning until 630 at night five days a week. if you don't treat a task is a job, it doesn't get done. take the time. learn about your family. no matter how busy you are. make the time. talk to those you love. you'll find out the most most incredible things. i assure you. so randall, where are we on time >> we are still dead.

>> i can go into something else, i'm really good at that. [laughter] about five or seven minutes. okay. my dad used to say, be strong. when i ask you, tony is yours. [laughter] i have some were walking to do. i don't want to surprise them, but i want the people down here to see me a little bit. one of the things i have lost in this job is all privacy. once you get nominated supreme court, every eye on the world is on you. i am not exaggerating. people from around the world have come to the united states to tell me that they have watched my nomination on tv. and people tell me from all over the world that they read our

cases and look at what the court is looking at. because of this, everything you do is under constant scrutiny. you know, i have to hold onto people sometimes when we are walking places. this is a little steep. then i write a book and i show you the inside of my heart and soul. so i hope it has been a worthwhile. [applause] i started by talking to you about my work and my book and i have been asked by many why did you start with the chapter about

the diagnosis of your juvenile diabetes? i know that many of us sat things in our life. you know? it's never easy to talk about an alcoholic father. it wasn't easy to talk about the terror that i felt my disease was diagnosed. it wasn't easy to talk to people about how this is part of my life. but so the same people feel who have family members that are dramatics. you learn about a relative in this book of mine that was my cousin.

we were inseparable as children. you will see pictures in this book that will show you that nelson is right next to me. he died before he was 30 years old. and i was with him the night before he died and many of the weeks before. i will read to you a passage. i will read to you a passage. i read it to you because his sister came to an event this week in new york. she said, thank you. very few people remember who noxon wants.

and now you brought him back to life. and in this story he teaches lessons. so i will read you chapter 26. a few paragraphs. i try to understand in my heart how it could happen that two children so closely matched could move through such different states, i enter the world of nightmare. reason seems a better defense against the pain. what made the difference between two children that began almost

the same way, inseparable. and in our own eyes, virtually identical, almost, but not quite. he was smarter, he was the father i wish for. why did i enjoy, even thrive when he was consumed by the same dangers that surround him? a culture that pushes boys out into the streets while protecting girls. there is more. nelson had mentioned that at the hospital one thing, call it what you like, discipline, determination, perseverance. a force of will.

even apart from his saying so, i knew that it had made all the difference in my life. if only i could bottle it, i would share it with all in america. every time your parents tell you not to be stubborn, look at them and say that the justice that it was a good thing. [laughter] [laughter] it isn't easy for people with money. i have many friends who have proven that to me. money does not buy happiness. the very true adage. life does each of us a lot of

things. if you let them knock you down, life is really unhappy. the thing besides all the people in the world that have supported me, and i talk to you about that in this book, the communities that organizers knows to help me be nominated for the supreme court, and i will be eternally grateful were. people saying i don't know what's important, i need help. those who think they know it all. that's one of the hardest things to do in the world. to say you don't know. and i hope i encourage people. but in the end is not giving up.

is it about trying and trying and trying. i discovered my failures in this book. because i have had my fair share of them. not to let them knock you down, but to get up and try again. to understand that even if you don't reach the moon, you can run on an asteroid that goes by that you could be very happy with. unless you try, you cannot achieve anything. you cannot succeed in life without trying. in the end, this is a book about

trying. i am truly, truly blessed. thank you for letting me share. [applause] [applause] very nice, well done. [applause] okay, let me grab a drink of water.

>> well-done. >> thank you. >> title of your book -- >> why don't you tell people where the questions came from. >> they came online, they were e-mail. >> some of them came from people in the audience. >> absolutely. you've done me a lot a lot of good today. [laughter] you've been a great advisor. i'm stronger, okay. the title of your book, "my beloved world", is 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 that talks about my beloved world. puerto rico is an important starting point.

i thought it was so fitting to call this book my beloved world. because i am introducing this world to the things that i love. despite of the sad things and challenges. the book is about love. a love of life and people, a love of experiences that strengthen me. and so the title is just right. you know something? if you've never visited puerto rico, is a great place to visit. [laughter] by the way, when september 11 came, all of us in the entire world was riveted.

one of the journalist who interviewed women from the midwest says reporter, you know, i have been watching events in new york and those people are just like us. [laughter] i bet some of you have said that about new yorkers. [laughter] that was part of many things. a lot of unhappiness in september 11, but there was one sliver of sunshine. it was in the way that the americans came together. and not matter what background that we were from. we stood together as a nation. that was really important lesson. but it also made me realize what i was writing this book that i

wanted people to see a slice of my life that was different from theirs. well, i doubted my experiences in puerto rico would be the same of the mexican or those of the coast region experienced or other immigrants from different parts of the united states of the world. but we share so many common things. we share so much more than we are different. and in describing "my beloved world" and a descriptive way that i try to accomplish it, that people would appreciate those commonalities. they would come away with feeling their own lives, even though the details may be

different. >> you are famous for a phrase that came up in your confirmation hearing. it was about being a woman. when i heard that come i thought it was more to the story. [applause] i thought there was more behind it. >> there have been many misunderstandings about that phrase in the article that i wrote. what people did not appreciate is where i came from. where i came from sometimes being a person and talk with down upon. people talk about it generally

in a certain way. it makes it sound like we are all drug addicts. perhaps murders. yes, it is against the law to be undocumented. but some are worse than others and different than the negative images that people portray. i have always wanted to convey to latino kids that we should take enormous pride and you can

be what i am, a very, very proud american with a with tina heart and soul. and i didn't have to apologize for any of that or anything that my culture has done. [applause] [applause] it was not intended to suggest something wrong, it was to convey quality. because when you don't feel it, somebody has to remind you sometimes. so i think this offended some, and i wish that consider words

than i do. but the 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, but people notice how our culture is our about. [applause] that is what i hope will come out of people reading this book. >> moving from the bronx to princeton university, from one world to another in a series of culture shocks, you described it as becoming a stranger in a strange land. what is your advice to others negotiating the same kind of path when. >> what i have done, and i describe in my book at every juncture of my life, i have

faith that people in the latino community. i had added is. i have done it because it has given me a sense of comfort and security in my life. we all have a taste for that we grew a sin because it is familiar. the familiar is warm and confident. but i am very careful to talk about the needs and simply use it as a springboard into the larger world. know your culture, but then go

out and explore. that is what they are there for. support you if you fall down. to stand you up and push you up again. i talk about holding bridges and not building walls in my book. and i talk about that because i don't believe in isolation. i believe every community should try to go out into the world and embrace at all. whether it's going to a place like princeton which was completely foreign to me, to make friends or not like you. it is too convenient not to reach out and make friends. convenient doesn't help you grow. you have to face meeting new people.

people. taking the time to embrace who you are and 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 was a theme in your book. i think it started in high school. he sought out the smartest kid in class and asked her how to study. he sought mentors all the way through. >> mentors are so important in a persons life. it was an introduction one of the most important mentors in my life. it was a federal judge of the u.s. district court of the second circuit in new york. we later became colleagues.

josé was the first successful i was talking about how important he was to me because he was a role model of what i might be able to do and achieve. it is intuitively understood. i had a fifth-grade teacher and i describe this in the book are you she gave out gold stars and i wanted some gold stars. [laughter] but i couldn't figure out how to do it. she always got all the gold stars, my friend. and so i went to her and i said, how do you get the stars and how

do you study? i saw her again. lead or not, i didn't remember this story. she reminded me of that story. [laughter] she underlined the important part of what she was reading, she showed me how to go back through the reading the next day she told me how she would go through the passages again looking at the most important point. and she said that is how she went about remembering everything that she did to answer the questions in the place. up until then, i read it once, and that was it. and she talked to me, it's not

like a photographic memory where you read it and remember. you have to repeat it often for it to stick. 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 the mirror and say your opening statement a dozen times. do the same thing with your closing statements. then pick a friend who is not a lawyer and practice before them so they can tell you what they don't think is right. nothing i do this without practice. so what was a lesson from her that really let me how to be a good study her. >> the supreme court, it is a mysterious or secretive world

most of us. how about sharing what your typical day at the court looks like? >> when i say it, most of you won't want the job. [laughter] we spend most of our days reading. we read briefs with, you'd be surprised. we read the record, the decision of courts across the country who think the questions. we been researched and we write. and we write and then we edit. almost every day, we are reading research and writing. it doesn't sound very exciting, does it matter.

[laughter] than our opinions get published. and all of that is shown to the world. it's what people look at. they don't really realize how much we have to do to get better. and it's hard to get there. memory as a judge that every decision you make, there is a winner, and there is a loser. people forget about the losers. because if they like the decision and there is one, they think they are smart. if they don't like what we have done, they do not think that we are smart. [laughter] they think that we are lazy. were they think that we are doing it based on politics. but somehow we don't like what

they like and we want to do it our way. it is so far from the truth. it's a skill, it's a part ashen. you are trained to look at issues in a legal way. to think about the questions not based on your personal life. but on the heels of interpretation that you are taught to understand. so the process continues to someone who loves law the way i do. it is completely in danger. the other half of the day, we are interacting with the public. the supreme court its visitors from around the world. i have met with school children as young as second-rate, grammar school, high school, college.

professional, not just law school. i meet with students were going to be doctors, those were going to be businessmen. i meet with groups that are represented in society to come to the court and meet with the justices to have conversations about what we do. we get visitors from around the world, judges from around the world. i told you earlier that people around the world study our legal system and they come to our courts looking to talk to us and for each of us learn from each other. i travel the law school, i travel to bar associations. i travel to other kinds of groups as well. because i want to reach out and teach people about how i am so passionate about what i do. you know, i can get people to

understand the legal system little bit better. and i hope that they will become better citizens. they will be more active citizens. working in the community and improving it for everyone. so we are busy on not so different levels. the hour that lawyers had argued cases before, it's a microcosm of the work that we do. >> the most popular questions submitted was how to the justices get along? [laughter] >> i know the relations among you are deeply collegial. so i am wondering what are the constant rituals in the way you all build relationships? >> it starts with respect.

if you come into this practice appreciating that every single justice on the court has a passion and a love for the constitution and our country, and you keep that in mind, then you know that if you expect that as an operating truth, which is, you understand the respect. you understand that you can disagree respectfully. if you've read our decisions, we are not always so nice to each other in passionate words. but that is because we really have a commitment to the answer that we think is right. as you all know from your

personal relationships. when people think they are right, they can get really agitated. [laughter] >> the we do this in writing. in person we treat each other with affection and love because we understand that commitment and we respect it. i hope i didn't use too many of borrowed phrases in my will, but we are famous. 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 office or elsewhere.

constantly. so when you spend that much time with each other, you figure out a way of how to love each other through the differences. that's what family does every single day. >> i understand that you all take turns? and you can't eat again until it comes around you when. >> in a way that's true, but nobody does that all the time. [laughter] on wednesday we vote on cases we heard a particularly. on friday, we discussed the votes on the case we heard tuesday in if we have a one state, perhaps a wednesday. we break it up because it can take time to talk about it.

there two or three sentences that remind us what it's all about. it's to ensure that we are all on the same page. but sometimes, not very often, they will come around to someone else and say oh, i disagree with that. so you have to start there, okay? so one starts to and then you talk about why. and then someone will tell you why in the other side's argument didn't make sense. the next is the most senior judge. in this case, it is justice scalia. he says if i agree, and if i do, i do on everything except i think you should mention this. i don't think some of those reasons are really a reason. i think that we should answer this argument that way.

it goes down the line until it reaches the most junior justice. but somewhere, someone might say i think it makes sense and i am going to discuss it. and they will explain why the other side is wrong. and if there is someone who join fact, they will be the same as the agree or stew. they will say yes, but we should say this, no, we shouldn't say that. by the time the conference ends, when the writer of the opinion has the majority, if he's not in the majority in the next most senior judge assigned the opinion. and if it is a dissenting group, the most senior judge picks who

writes this. by the time you sit down for writing opinions, you have a very clear outline of what your colleagues are thinking. it's your job to write an opinion that other people will join. because you need five votes to win. there is a joke among judges that if you are on the trial courts, you count one, me. you make the decision. if you're on the appeals court, there are three judges. you know how to count to two. your vote or the other guys. and if you are on the supreme court, you know how to count to five. okay? [laughter] but you have to ride it out so that people will join your opinion.

so that is how the practice of writing begins. now, clearly after the jobs command, sometimes people say you are really not thinking the way that i am. i have to write differently. lucia might be the same, and that is called the conference. it happens also among dissenters. so i'm dissenting for this reason i will write separately. but we try to come together as often as we can. >> yesterday's inauguration, and you are great. [applause] jericho. [applause] >> at the inauguration reminds us of the power of confrontation. why does it work?

it's remarkable that guiding document has worked for 223 years in the world's most diverse nation. why do you think works? >> because of our forefathers had documents from this time. the way they did this was to try not to define, use terms that each generation could interpret to meet their needs. one of the biggest issues that the court is constantly grappling with is in this age of new technology what is an

unreasonable search and seizure? okay matt all right? so we have talked about the government and can they fly over your home and new technologies being used that emanate to your home. we have had questions about wiretaps. we have had questions about gps navigators and tracking devices. and we will have many more. for sure, the forefathers had no idea that the computer and computer chips would exist. even benjamin franklin, i doubt very much that he knew. [laughter] that he ever in his wildest

fantasies imagined what we had today. it debuted terms that are more specific than they did, we wouldn't have been given the opportunity to define this so they did a mixture of some very clear things. you can't quarter the militia in people's homes except in times of war. that is pretty specific. but there were many other things they talked about generally. the document gave us a concept. we are guided by that concept.

>> what worries you about the constitution? are there any trends that you might have your eye on? >> are you a lawyer? i didn't think you were. >> there are many. but i don't think it's fair to really talk about it. but i will talk about one thing that is the recent direction. our forefathers were citizens. they were people who were of the community and they were the envy of that society and they were businessmen, very successful farmers. they were people who had high

education. from the various things that they saw working, starting with the things that they thought didn't work in coming up with creative solutions for the issue that they saw with other systems. more people are voting now than they have in the past year. citizens forget that it is their

obligation not to let the country just happened. to create the country they want. that is why i tell people when they ask me, how do you feel about immigration laws. how do you feel about the second amendment? i get all of these questions because i generally have patience, but i still consider it. i don't want people to believe that i've made up my mind. because i haven't yet. if i express an opinion, that is what they will believe. but having said that, what i often say to them is why are you asking me in a why aren't you asking yourself and that is what

this country is founded on. people actually getting up and starting work to change a country and create a new one. so i am not suggesting that exactly, but i am encouraging good responsibility. we should all be out there lobbying for the things that are important to us. you take charge of that change. >> last question. thinking back to your nomination , and a time from your nomination to your swearing-in,

to the supreme court, as are any moment that stands out that was particularly meaningful? >> i think i spoke about earlier. the moment when i realized how extraordinarily special my mother was. we take the people we love often for granted. they are in a life. we sometimes don't really know how important they are. the most special moment along during the nomination process was one of my closest friends that said sonia, you have to watch this. i've watched my brother being interviewed and he was describing me.

he started to cry. in that moment, like never before, i knew how deeply my brother loved me. most of us think we don't get a chance see that or feel that except in moments of tragedy. i got to see it in a joyful life. >> justice sotomayor, thank you so much for a beautiful evening. here's a gift from our group. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> booktv is on facebook. interact with guests and viewers, watch videos and get up-to-date information on offense.

they spoke.com/booktv. now more from santa fe, new mexico, home to about 80,000 people and 250 our galleries. santa fe is rich in historical and literary culture. we take you now to collected works bookstore. >> welcome to collected works in santa fe, new mexico. my name is dorothy in my co-owner and i have owned collective works for the last 18 of 35 years old as the santa fe's oldest and best bookstore

in the city. it supports no less than 17 independent bookstores. how does collective works in the other 16 stay afloat? it's not easy. we all worked very hard at what we do. especially in a mutually supportive bookstore owners. the city itself is tri- cultural with an amazing amount of very well read literary people. the combination of six major organization groups. it is a rich cultural city. there is dance and art and music are the people that visit here come out and support the culture

what sets us apart is the fact that we really have the space and we are fortunate to be in this beautiful space. we have the space to become a community center and we do more than sell books. we are also running our own story hours here and we have the space to do that. we have the space in a coffeehouse to donate out for their special event. we don't charge for them. it gets people into the store and it is not totally kindness on our part, but it does bring people into the store and it gives the community a sense that this is their store. that they belong here.

that we belong to them. very often the first thing that is said is that it smells like a bookstore. people enjoy that. they enjoy the fact that we have people that know and read the books. it's very different from selling almost anything else. if you see a red sweater, you can try it on in a store and pay for it and walk out if you like it. but 90% of the time you have an read the product that you are buying a bookstore. so there is a lot of mutual trust, mutual excitement, in order to be able to supply that to the people who visit the store. both locals and visitors. we have to have it a well read amount of colleagues here. there are 16 here working at collected work between a coffeehouse and bookstore.

it has been four years since the recession. obviously competing head-to-head with internet sales, which at least as we speak now, still do not charge sales tax. we are required to collect the tax. we are not playing on a level playing field. however, having that on all of that, the public perception of giant corporations is changing. people understand the importance of supporting a local endeavor which supports local taxes and is involved with the local community. and i am very proud of the 15 colleagues at work here with me. we have a remarkable scientific

community here here and in los alamos. so we do a great deal with science and theory and philosophy. this is a deeply religious experience. this whole wall behind me is paperback fiction and that rules out if you're on a steady basis to visitors want something light to read when they are traveling and not too terribly important. the breakfast meats here all winter long which comes to santa fe, along with millions of other viewers across the world. we do a lot with music and art. pretty much everything. the history is rooted in two

major cultures. native american, hispanic, and that is obviously oversimplifying things. but each one carries a heritage that the writers are anxious to share. we boast the best spanish colonial art market. we felt books in august, which is the largest carmaker in the world. and for many years we have sold books in the spanish market. again, the largest spanish market in the world. these cultures are here, and there are only 80,000 of us. we are all excited to be here.

santa fe is a mecca for artist who are freethinkers. a lot of people practice the religion, the lifestyle, the intellectual thoughts, it has always been very interesting place for people who are really thinking for themselves. it is only natural that gorgeousness of the sce the sce, visual artists and the performing artist who managed to dance and sing at 7000 feet above sea level is amazing. but the availability of a small town makes it easy for people to become intimately acquainted

with those in the art to serve on boards fairly quickly to attend event and meet artists. the cross culture of visualize performing arts and literary arts is just unnatural. thank you. we are in albuquerque, we produced this beautiful book. we had some left over. those leftovers went to the city.