In what appears to be her first press interview since becoming a Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor said she waited for 12 hours to get the Memorial Day phone call from President Obama confirming his plan to appoint her to the Supreme Court. When her cell phone finally rang at her New York City home and the White House operator said the president was on the line, “I had my left hand over my chest to calm my beating heart, literally,” she said. After Obama told her he had decided to appoint her to the high court, Sotomayor said, “I caught my breath and started to cry and said, ‘Thank you Mr. President.’ That was what the moment was like.”
Her remarkably personal comments came in an interview she gave Sept. 16 to C-SPAN as part of its “Supreme Court Week” documentary series, which begins airing on the cable channel Oct. 4. All 11 sitting and retired justices of the Court agreed to be interviewed — a notable first-ever accomplishment, given the Court’s traditional camera-shy posture toward the news media. Excerpts from the Sotomayor interview were released for use by other media Thursday night.
