How Do you Open a Closed Book?
Last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor announced that she will be publishing a memoir about her childhood in the Bronx and her journey to becoming the first Latina Supreme Court Justice. This doesn't seem like incredibly consequential information, but it's exciting to know that an opportunity is on the horizon to learn more about one of our Supreme Court Justices. Justice Clarence Thomas is the only other sitting Justice who has written a memoir. And, while various biographies of the other Justices offer insights, the Justices generally remain elusive figures. As they make difficult decisions about critical questions related to the interpretation of our Constitution and various statutes, they have a major impact on our everyday lives. And yet, we are generally unfamiliar with their backgrounds, and even with their judicial philosophies.
There has recently been significant criticism that nominees to the Court do not give sufficient information at their hearings, leaving Senators and the American public without a good sense of how they will approach the cases that come before them. Some Judiciary Committee Senators echoed this critical refrain earlier this week in their comments before the vote on Elena Kagan's nomination. Most prominently, Senator Arlen Specter expressed his frustration with what he deemed to be empty answers at the hearing, decrying the charade that the process has become. (Considering his recent primary defeat, after decades of service on the Judiciary Committee, serving as both its Chair and Ranking Member, this was likely Senator Specter's "last word" on Supreme Court nominations.) His concern is not unfounded. It's no secret that since Robert Bork's nomination was defeated in 1987, nominees have been more guarded and careful about how they answer questions posed at the hearings.
So, what's the moral of the story? I think the moral is that we want to know more. We want to understand the inner workings of the minds of the people who interpret our laws. Perhaps Justice Sotomayor's upcoming memoir (published in both English and Spanish) will be a step in the right direction.