Obama

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Lesson from a Supreme Court Justice and a defendant’s mother

I stumbled on this article in the Deseret News and have kept it as it struck me on multiple levels. The United States Supreme Court is the pinnacle, of sorts, of my profession – law. I also practice as a public defender for those charged with crimes. The article also shows the humanity we have to remember in whatever we do.

The article named “A lesson to learn from a Supreme Court justice and the mother of a defendant” was published 18 September 2021 in the Church News, published by the Deseret News, written by Sarah Jane Weaver. Here is a link to the interview mentioned in the article, the discussion begins at 47 minutes. 

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Judge Sonia Sotomayor (L), the first Hispanic justice on the us Supreme Court, is sworn in with the Judicial Oath in the East Conference room of the Supreme Court on August 8, 2009, as the 111th Justice of the US Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts (not pictured) as her mother Celina (R) holds the Bible and her brother Juan Luis (C) looks on. Sotomayor is President Barack Obama’s first high court nominee. AFP PHOTO/Paul J. Richards (Photo credit should read PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

I recently listed to a November 2018 conversation between United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and David M. Rubenstein. It was sent to me by a friend. 

During the annual David M. Rubenstein Lecture, sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Rubenstein asked Justice Sotomayor – who was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Aug. 6, 2009 – about the Bible she used for her swearing-in ceremony. 

Sotomayor spoke of a courtroom interaction that had taken place years earlier, when she was a trial judge. 

She recalled sentencing a young member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a process that allowed her to learn a little about the faith. During the sentencing, she mentioned d”how impressed she was with many of the tenets and values” of the religion.

In retrospect, Sotomayor said she sentenced the defendant “more harshly” that she might have a few years later. ”It was a difficult case for me,” she explained to Rubinstein.

After the sentence was handed down and she had moved to her next cases, she received a package in the mail from the defendant’s mother. 

Because the package was unsolicited, it was examined and X-rayed. When the box was finally opened, it contained what Sotomayor referred to as “a Mormon Bible.” 

The defendant’s mother had sent it with a note “explaining that I had spoken about their religion and that she thought I should learn more about it. So she had sent me a Bible.” 

Bound by a code of conduct, Sotomayor cannot accept gifts, “certainly not from a defendant’s mother.” She thought “about what she could do because sending it back seemed like the wrong thing to do.”

Ultimately, she learned the value of the Bible from the U.S. Library of Congress, and sent the gift-giver a money order. She thanked the mother for the Bible and explained, “I couldn’t accept the book as a gift, but that I could pay for the book.” 

Then she told Rubenstein: “That is the book I used for my swearing in.” 

This exchange between the judge and the mother certainly is an example of Sotomayor’s quest for understanding, her laudable commitment to the ethics that govern her profession and her goodness.

It also communicates much about the defendant’s mother, who reached out to a judge after a difficult case. Her sincere gesture rippled through the years, climaxing as Sotomayor took her place as the 111th Supreme Court justice in U.S. history – and the third woman and the first Hispanic to serve on the court. 

Sotomayor goes on in the interview to talk about the importance of listening and understanding.

The mother modeled both. She didn’t send a scathing letter to the judge, criticizing her opinion, approach or application of the law. She showed no anger, contempt or rage. Instead she sought common ground.

And in a most profound gesture, the mother, whose son was just sentenced, perhaps “harshly,” offered a treasured truth. 

As racial tensions spread like wildfire across the United States in June 2020, President Russell M. Nelson said Church leaders “abhor the reality that some would deny others respect.” 

President Nelson wrote that during the Savior’s early mission, “He constantly ministered to those who were excluded, marginalized, judged, over-looked, abused and discounted. As His followers, can we do anything less? The answer is no! We believe in freedom, kindness and fairness for all of God’s children!

“Let us be clear. WE are brothers and sisters, each of us the child of a loving Father in Heaven. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, invites all to come unto Him.”

President Nelson asked everyone to foster fundamental respect for the human dignity of every human soul. 

“We need to work tirelessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating walls of segregation. I plead with us to work together for peace, for mutual respect and for an outpouring of love for all of God’s children.” 

We see the smallest example of this as the paths of a judge and a mother shared political ideologies. I suspect they did not.

I do not know how the mother felt about her son’s sentence. I have to wonder if she felt the judge had found the long-sought balance between justice and mercy. 

And I do not know if the paths of these women ever crossed again.

But what I do know is beautiful – and contains a sweet lesson in a world needing more bridges than walls. A judge sought understanding and a mother responded with grace. Years after their brief interaction, the judge laid her hand on the mother’s Bible and sore an oath to God as she took her place on the United States’ highest court.

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TV’s and such

It seems to be one of those weeks where there isn’t necessarily a whole lot to tell.  So to make an entry, and anything with a little length, I will offer a smattering of thoughts from all over the spectrum.
A big Happy Birthday to Chris Horsley and Amanda Smith on the 14th.  I sent them both e-mails and wished them the best.  It is my Aunt Jackie’s birthday on the 25th, so Happy Birthday ahead of time.
Tuesday night Amanda and I went to pay a visit to Doris Coley.  She lives over in Laurel Fork area.  Amanda has worked with her for some time at Macy’s.  She lured Amanda over there in pursuit of a free TV and DVD player.  I really don’t care if we own either and would actually prefer not to.  That is just a little more weight I will have to worry about moving in a year and another distraction to take away some of what little time we mortals have been given.  Somehow I had come to believe it was a venture where we would go over and pick up the newly acquired property and head back home.  We made an evening of it.  We chatted about the nice lovely pleasantries of the life at Macy’s.  Conversation turned to life in general and school.  Of course I did a full analysis to see if her Coley line could in any way be related to mine (Hers is several hundreds of years in North Carolina making at least that long of a connection seeing how mine came directly from England).
She had a nice little piano in her living room that also became conversation.  She invited me to play it and before long I was in my own land while the women pondered paths I didn’t care to walk.  Before the night had ended we sang some hymns and even ended in a discussion about religion.  I ended the evening with giving her a copy of the Book of Mormon and basically a first discussion.  Sometimes I feel I am not as bold as I once was.  Honestly, it seems that one relies upon their companion so much to bear testimony and Amanda had no clue of the missionary ways that I think that is the only reason it felt pretty weak.  Sadly, I think both of us relied on trying to convince too much rather than just bearing testimony and letting the Spirit drive it to the heart.  Amanda left thinking we had been too bold and I left thinking we had not been bold enough.  She called us a few days later and made sure we were still planning on coming back.  Either way, we don’t seem to have offended.  I look forward to a return visit and whether or not she read any of the newly introduced sacred scripture.
Tonight I paid a visit to the Family History Library outside my normal working hours.  We had a pretty severe thunderstorm this evening and the two ladies working inside decided to go watch the storm for a minute.  Sadly, they left their keys in the library.  I rushed down thinking I would find two drowned older ladies.  Luckily enough they had only locked themselves out of the library, and not the building.  So I spent some time visiting with them about the Merrick’s of Maine/Massachusetts.  They decided to leave early so I played the piano and practiced some singing until a member of the Stake Presidency appeared to practice basketball.
Tuesday night at the library also proved to be interesting.  For the second week in a row a young man who is a recent convert came into the library to do some research.  He appeared with his laptop last week with PAF newly downloaded.  He started putting in his family.  He is preparing to go to the temple and wanted to do some of his own names for baptisms in about two weeks.  He never even knew who his Dad was last week.  This week he came back with dates and places and interestingly, was able to link him into the Cosby line.  Once we did that we were able to take him back to Jamestowne and even followed the line back 1,000 years.  He comes from a noble line in England.  He was amazed to find ancestors on both of his lines whose temple work had been done.  Some as early as 1932 in the Mesa, Arizona Temple.  I look forward to seeing him this coming Tuesday when we run these names through TempleReady.
Last Sunday we had our Stake Priesthood Meeting.  We were introduced to the new Mission President, President Millburn.  I prefer him much more than the last one.  He seems much more humble and able to connect with an audience.  In addition, he gave a great talk on fishing.  He is an expert at it, that is for sure.  Who else uses a stomach pump on a fish?  President Mullins (who interrupted my singing and playing tonight) gave a talk about various topics.  One was that individuals in the stake are not carrying their weight in fast offerings.  I thought that was interesting.  None of the other talks I remember.  However, the power in the singing was easily felt.
Today I was branded again at work due to a broker’s dishonesty.  A man gave me a complete sob story about why an appraisal was sufficient.  He manipulated my inexperience in working someone else’s loan, added with the other person not recording what they had done, and my not being thorough enough to catch the little red flags has now cost the bank a loan which is considered a risk and investors will not buy it.  Due to my approving of an updated appraisal, that wasn’t really updated, and the bank always standing by their word somebody got away with money that probably would not have been approved.  Like speeding tickets with points, I have now gained my first and hope they will wear off over time…  It is a good thing I no longer have access to that broker’s information for I would surely give him a phone call and let him know how sorely disappointed I am in him.  At any rate, “Let God choose between me and thee and reward thee according to thy deeds.”
Terry McComb’s funeral is going to be this coming Saturday.  I so wish I could be there.  Alas, we can’t do everything we want in life.  His obituary appeared today in the Times News.  I looked at it this morning at work.  I am looking forward to having my own clipping from the newspaper for my records.  I guess I will just have to pay a visit to the cemetery next time I get back to Idaho.  I so planned on spending a day or two in Branson on the way home for a lesson or two.  I guess I won’t now, at least stay for lessons.
We are headed up to Washington, DC again this weekend to attend the temple.  I am very much looking forward to it.  I have very much felt my faith increase this week and my soul feeling greatly nourished after some experiences in the scriptures.  2 Peter 2 and Ether 12 were powerful this week.
We received the Church News today and I read the parts about the new Brazil Temple.  I was thinking how excited President Faust must be to have the temple dedication coming up and realized he had passed away.  I guess he will be there at any rate, but not with a mortal body.  I wonder who will be called next.  I surely hope it is someone independent from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  I certainly think tradition and order are a good thing but it is always nice to shake things up from time to time.  Too often people get so rigid about the way things should be done we forget the role of inspiration being mixed in the bag.  I would really like to see a President of the Church not be the most senior Apostle.  How would that be for shaking things up?  We need more John Winder’s, Reuben Clark’s, Jedediah Grant’s, Hyrum Smith’s, and Charles Nibley’s in the world.
Lastly, I will end on a political note.  I haven’t had a political candidate really catch much of the sympathies of my heart.  They seem so canned and stale I can’t stand it.  However, Obama gave a comment this week about opening up government.  Boy, if reading an article ever stopped my heart, that was one of them.  A candidate willing to give full disclosure to the public?  If that becomes his whole purpose in life, I will most certainly vote for that man.  Well, that is only after he drops universal health care.  After my experiences in England,  will never support government ran health care.  But open disclosure?  How refreshing.  That requires more effort.  That requires doing things you know the whole country can be privy to.  Where would Bill Clinton be if he had known that?  How would things be different with Bush?  Either of them?  Watergate?  Iran-Contra?  New Deal?  War?  How would the world be different?