Important place, nine justices and only them meet around a table in the Conference Room. Aty discuss the cases heard oral arguments and begin the process of reaching a decision of the court. Sit at one end and it wraps around the table in order of seniority. I remember the first time i set foot in the room. It is pretty daunting the first few times. Because thats where the actual work and the Decision Making takes place. We dont have any observers in the Conference Room. Nobody can enter the room who is not a justice. No secretary, no law clerk. Not even a message bearer. I have to be professional and accurate and fair and each of my colleagues feel the same way. So there is a little tension and excitement in the room. We love it. Were designed to do that. The job is no good if you cant argue. I initiate the discussion for an argued case. I will say, this case is about this and the arguments are so and so. And i think we should reverse or affirm and heres why. Sometimes in an easy case
These cases are very close and you go in on the edge. You dont sit here to make the law, to decide who ought to win, we decide who wins under the law that the people have adopted. By thewill be surprised high level of collegiality. If there are four of the nine of us who want to hear any of these cases, we will hear it. We are here to decide things, the job is to decide and we decide. We cannot have a decision that this court. This Court Decides important questions and that means you have to do your best to get it right, and you have to work as hard as you can to get it right. Why why is it that we have astonishingly beautiful, imposing, impressive structure . It is to remind us that we have an important function and to remind the public that sees the building of the importance and the centrality of the law. It all ways thrills me, amazes me, and gives me faith in our country to know how much people trust the court. I think the danger is that sometimes you come into a building like thi
This week on q a, president ial historian Richard Norton smith discusses his book, an uncommon man the triumph of Herbert Hoover. Richard norton smith, why did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago uncommon man . Well, its taken actually from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. If you remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, maybe 43, about the century of the common man, and wallace from a left of center perspective, was projecting in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. And it wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create, at home, a true democracy. A place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place in the political spectrum. He was, in effect, making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. I shouldnt paraphrase it, but when you get sick, you want a
You. Before i go further, i am instructed to tell you to please turn off any cell phones, apple watches, what other gadgets you may have, so they do not interfere with our system. Thank you. As you know our host tonight is Justice Sonia sotomayor. We are pleased to have her with us tonight and want to thank or on behalf of the society for giving her time when we call upon her to participate in events like this. It is quite important to us and quite important to you. We very much appreciate it. I will tell you briefly a bit about the justice. She is a native new yorker, born in the bronx, very unhappy about last night baseball game, i gather. Undergraduate work at princeton and went to yale law school, then joined the District Attorney office in New York County as an assistant District Attorney. She was a litigator in the international and commercial law area. That attracted attention and before long, she had become a Federal District judge on the Southern District of new york. Six year
Richard norton smith, why did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago uncommon man . Well, its taken, actually, from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. Remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe43, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting, in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. And it wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy. A place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was, in effect, making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. But something to say, that i shouldnt paraphrase it, but, you know, when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. Yo