U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor visited campus on March 9, meeting with Berkeley Law students and faculty before joining Interim Dean Melissa Murray for a conversation at Zellerbach Hall. After the capacity crowd gave Sotomayor a thunderous standing ovation, she said, “You have no idea how overwhelming this is.”
The court’s first Hispanic and third female justice, she discussed her rise from growing up in a Bronx housing project and shared her thoughts about the judiciary’s role in society.
Between sessions with Murray, who clerked for Sotomayor on the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, the justice walked through the crowd and answered questions while shaking hands—and sometimes exchanging hugs.