A member of the nation's highest court will be in Springfield on Wednesday evening.
SPRINGFIELD -- A member of the nation's highest court will be in Springfield on Wednesday evening.
The Springfield Public Forum is hosting a conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor at 7:30 p.m. at the MassMutual Center.
Sotomayor was nominated as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama six years ago, making her the first Hispanic person and third woman to serve.
The talk in Springfield is free and open to the public.
Those planning to attend were invited to submit a question to the justice prior to the event. She is expected to discuss her memoir, My Beloved World, and her record as both an attorney and judge. Sotomayor will not discuss matters that may come become the court, proposed legislation, pending cases or statutes.
Follow along below for live coverage of the event.
6:50 p.m. - Good evening, thanks for joining us for live coverage. Here is a look at the crowd waiting for the conversation with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, as seen from the MassLive offices. Doors opened for the free event at 6:30 p.m. and people from the general public are being let in on a first come, first served basis.
Michelle Williams / MassLive.com
7:20 p.m. There are less than 10 minutes left before the event is scheduled to begin, yet dozens more people are arriving inside the 15,000-square-foot grand ballroom at the MassMutual Center.
7:27 p.m. A limited number of pre-signed copies of her book were available for sale prior to the event.
Michelle Williams / MassLive.com
7:53 p.m. Over 20 minutes after the event was scheduled to begin, a line of people are still outside and hoping to get a seat within the grand ballroom.
Michelle Williams / MassLive.com
8:16 p.m. Sonia Sotomayor has taken the stage. The first question posed to the Supreme Court justice was why she chose to write an autobiography when so many people would write about her. "I had to capture who I was for myself," Sotomayor tells the audience. She joked that every time she sat down to write it was like a therapy session.
Michelle Williams / MassLive.com
Additionally, she said, it was important for her to document the stories of her family members, who she said would have been lost to history without her book.
"As some of you know, I come from what some people describe as a very challenging background," Sotomayor says of growing up in the Bronx. Her father struggled with alcoholism and she was diagnosed with diabetes as a child. "If I can do it, you can do it too."
Michelle Williams / MassLive.com
8:24 p.m. As a child, she says, her family called her the Spanish word for hot pepper because she couldn't sit still. In similar fashion, she is now off the stage and walking around the audience.
8:28 p.m. Speaking of her diabetes, Sotomayor says her disease taught her discipline at a young age. She has managed the disease for over half a century.
8:30 p.m. Sotomayor is asked about affirmative action, in light of her dissent in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.
"What affirmative action did when I was in college was to force schools to look closely at applicants," She said. Sotomayor believes it forced colleges to look for qualities in students that would make them achieve," from different backgrounds than their typical applicants.
"It was a door opener for doors that had been closed for people of my background," she said. "We need to equal the race for people."
Sotomayor says she benefitted from affirmative action and was given an opportunity that she otherwise would not have been afforded. She said her alma mater was not used to looking for students from certain backgrounds. Such behaviors can lead to discrimination, she says, adding that there needs to be diversity "of all kinds."
Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, receiving the university's highest academic honor.
8:38 p.m. The justice was asked what qualities she looks for in a mentor.
In college, she said she looked for a professor who could encourage her to write better. She met a professor who understood that Spanish was her first language and that, when writing, she would translate between the two languages when thinking.
During the event, she spotted an eight-year-old from Holyoke she met earlier today, when reading to students at the Holyoke Public Library. She stopped addressing the question to say hello to the child and say she is probably the youngest attendee in the audience.
"You have to be able to learn enough of them to embody the best qualities of them," she says, of the question of mentorship.
8:44 p.m. The Supreme Court justice is asked of her planned career path as a young woman. "I always wanted to be a lawyer or a judge," she said.
As someone who had been in and out of hospitals her entire life, she didn't want to go into medicine. "I didn't want to spend more time in hospitals," the woman, whose mother was a nurse, said.
Another job she considered for just a moment was working as a teacher. She said, "I get a little frustrated waiting for people to come to the right answer."
Sotomayor said she wanted to help people, so went to law school. "Every kind of lawyer tries to improve some aspect of human relations," she said. "I wanted to do something where I could help guide people into making decisions for themselves and other people."
After Sotomayor answered, Judge Illana Rover said she has lost track of her interviewee so the justice waves from the crowd.
Additionally, Rover said Sotomayor is a very good salsa dancer, despite Sotomayor's protests that she isn't suited for creative fields.
8:54 p.m. Sotomayor asked about her first day as an associate justice on the Supreme Court.
She was appointed during discussions on Citizens United v. FEC. Sotomayor said she planned to spend the day reading discussions on the topic when Justice John Paul Stevens stopped by her office. He asked her to call him 'Paul,' but she continually referred to him as Justice Stevens.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor also stopped by her office. Following that visit, Sotomayor found a letter on her desk from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The mention of her name caused audience members to burst into applause.
On the second day, Sotomayor said she felt as though she was in Harry Potter when she found a staircase she hadn't seen in the same place the day before. Finding her so confused, her assistant told the justice that they had removed a wall in the building overnight.
9:00 p.m. Rover asked Sotomayor which of her positions over the years was the most fun.
The Supreme Court justice's favorite was being a trial judge. "Everyday you're surprised by what's going on," she said. After ending her current position, Sotomayor joked that she would like to go back to being a trial judge.
9:04 p.m. Sotomayor is asked about how justices can have so varying of opinions in regards to the law.
"If the answer was clear, there really wouldn't be a circuit," she said. "The Supreme Court doesn't take a case unless there's a disagreement among the circuits."
"There has to be something in the case that leads to disagreements," she adds.
With nine different people on the court, Sotomayor says they're bound to have differing opinions.
A case that comes to the Supreme Court must have been wrong in some assumption, she said.
"If we were deciding a case nine [to] zero, that would mean we probably weren't talking," she said. "You have to be sure we're really talking about the issue," to ensure the public is heard.
9:09 p.m. Sotomayor is asked what role women have played on the court.
She jokes that she's lucky that as the third female justice, she didn't have to reign the men in, as O'Connor and Ginsberg had to.
When O'Connor joined the court, Sotomayor says she worked tirelessly to make the justices have lunch together so that they would talk outside of formal sessions.
9:12 p.m. Sotomayor is back near the stage. "I can see you again," Rover says, of her interviewee.
She is asked about cases that she care deeply about and is not apart of the majority answer. "How do you move on?" Rover asked.
One of the important things about being on the Supreme Court is being able to write our dissent, Sotomayor says. When writing them, she said she hopes they will convince Congress to rewrite the law or at least reach members of the public and serve as a record for the court.
9:14 p.m. "Can you respect the law and view it as imperfect?" Rover asked.
"Absolutely," she said. "We can't make things always perfect as one branch of government." All forms of government work together to form a more perfect union, she said, a comment drawing a little applause.
Sotomayor said she considers those that don't vote to commit a close to traitorous act, a comment that drew disapproval from audience members.
9:22 p.m. Sotomayor is asked what steps should people take to achieve their dreams.
She said each person should ask themselves every night what good acts they have performed and what have they learned today.
"More importantly, whatever you choose to do will have value if you do it with passion," she said.
Unless you do an "illegal job," Sotomayor says, what you do brings good into the world.
"Don't live this life in a boring way. You know what counts as boring - doing something you hate," Sotomayor says.
9:27 p.m. She was asked about her greatest obstacle.
The Supreme Court justice is now speaking of an all-encompassing fear she dealt with as a child and young woman.
"Sometimes fear doesn't let you take a chance. I think that's the biggest obstacle in life," she said. Fear is natural, she says, and that people cannot let it take over their lives.
During the nomination process, she said many people accused her of not being smart enough for the role. "That hurt me," she said, and considered withdrawing her name.
Friends convinced her to continue in the process.
She encouraged all in the audience to go out and do the thing that they fear the most.
"I don't want this to end," Rover said, as she asks Sotomayor to share any last thoughts.
She asks everyone to remember that no one accomplishes everything alone. She encourages all to remember to help others as they receive help themselves.
She said she feels blessed to be here tonight.
The event has concluded.
