Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Answers Questions at UA Law School Thursday

A Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States was in Tuscaloosa on Thursday, answering questions from students and faculty at the University of Alabama School of Law.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was at the Capstone today to give the latest iteration of the Albritton Lectures.

The special series is funded by the Albritton family of Andalusia, Alabama, who can boast that five generations have practiced law and four have graduated here in Tuscaloosa. Their support has drawn 12 SCOTUS Justices to lecture on campus, including Sotomayor herself in 2020, though that lecture was delivered virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thursday's lecture was back in person and drew a large crowd of law school students and professors to hear Sotomayor speak.

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In an hour-long address, Justice Sotomayor fielded questions about political division in the US affecting the Supreme Court, the growth and implementation of artificial intelligence, and her experience as a trailblazer on the court, just the third woman to be a Justice.

She was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2009.

"AI is a sophisticated human. It is — all of its input is input from human beings. Because it is that, it has the potential to perpetuate the very best in us, and the very worst in us," she said. "What goes into computers, if it's bad data, what comes out is bad results. Okay? So it can be a very dangerous tool, particularly in judging the complexity of human endeavors or human situations."

Still, she encouraged every student to master the use of AI before they leave campus and be prepared for its transformation of the legal profession and many others.

She answered questions about the complex ways in which the Fourth, Eighth and other Amendments to the Constitution must be reconsidered in modern circumstances, and assured students that even in a time of intense political differences, she still has faith in the other eight Justices on the Court.

"My colleagues and I, we're students of the law. We're there because we've shown our deep passion for and engagement with law, legal theory, and legal approaches. We thought and think deeply about the issues that come before us," she said. "I think most of us actually like each other. And we can certainly laugh together; we often have lunch together after arguments and after conferences. You'll see me walking the halls with people with whom I never agree, and we're joking and talking to each other like any other two human beings do. For me, it's because I'm not thinking that how they vote defines them as people, or as human beings. I'm looking for the very best in them as human beings. And I'm finding the areas in which we share commonality."

The Justice also had words of encouragement for the young women in the auditorium who are seeking to become leaders in their communities and the legal world.

"I talk to anyone who wants to be a leader, and what I tell them is to find a passion. The only way you lead people is if you yourself have a passion about your cause. You have to believe in it. You have to believe in its righteousness. And you have to be willing to show how hard you work to make that passion a reality," she said. "People follow leaders who believe, and leaders who care about what they're doing and the why of it. Women have to find the voice to do that."

After the Albritton Lecture concluded, two high-achieving Law School students spoke to reporters about the impact of seeing Justice Sotomayor take their classes questions in person.

"I wanted to show up today because there aren't many times that you have the position or ability to see a Supreme Court Justice live in the flesh. I thought this would be a monumental moment," said Tykeisa Nesbitt, who is the president of the First Generation Students Association, the Business Law Society, and the Student Bar Association. "The thing I'm going to take away is trying to find a way to get the people to believe in something so you're able to lead them. I'm a woman who can find my voice, but also lead with purpose and get people to believe in the dream too."

"Justice Sotomayor is such a humanist. She cares so deeply about the inherent value in every person. And that shows through all of her decisions and all of her opinions, and also in her cordiality with her colleagues on the court," said Sav Miles, the 3L Valedictorian and one of the Law School's leadership fellows. "It's really hard, I can imagine, to be in deep discussions and debates with people who think so differently than she does, but her ability to see the inherent value and the shared common ground and morals with all of them is incredibly powerful and something that I'll take away in both my personal and professional life."

Miles said she hopes to become a civil rights attorney and work here in the South. She described being close to tears hearing Sotomayor talk about the law face-to-face.

"It really means so much to have Justice Sotomayor here. She's one of my personal role models because, as a young woman, it's easy to feel like the law is not a place for me," Miles said. "I have lawyers in my family. They're all men. And when I heard that I was going to be valedictorian, I continually questioned whether there had been some miscalculation that got me here. But to be able to sit in front of that level of brilliance and success from Justice Sotomayor, the third woman on the Supreme Court, and to know about her humble upbringing, it reminded me of what's possible. And I think it's going to remind all the young women in the school what's possible."

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