Practice medicine with professionalism and integrity, be compassionate, and amid daily challenges always remember what inspired you to become a doctor. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor offered that advice to students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai during a special question-and-answer session on Thursday, May 7. Justice Sotomayor met with students and faculty on campus in Goldwurm Auditorium the day before receiving her honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the Icahn School of Medicine’s 46th annual Commencement Ceremony.
Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, presided over the event’s question-and-answer session. During the frank and lively discussions in which Justice Sotomayor descended from the stage to pose for photos with participants as she talked, she told students they must “always come back to center,” and remember their “purpose,” despite professional demands. She reminded the audience that “doctors start out in a place that most people don’t and that is with patients’ hopes and expectations that you will take care of them.”
In introducing Justice Sotomayor, Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, highlighted her professional trajectory from the South Bronx to Princeton University and Yale Law School, eventually becoming the first Latina Supreme Court Justice. Justice Sotomayor also dealt with juvenile diabetes, which she credits with helping her develop discipline at an early age.
“Your remarkable personal story inspires us,” Dr. Charney said. “You have successfully navigated so many challenges—economic, ethnic, linguistic, gender, political, and have proven that intelligence, hard work, and courage can break down barriers. Your roles as a mentor and a role model resonate with many of us at Mount Sinai. Just as your relationship with numerous mentors helped you along your unique path to an incredible career, it also laid the foundation for you to become a mentor to countless others.”
When asked about her dreams for the future, Justice Sotomayor said, “I continue to work on being a better Justice. I’ve spent a lifetime becoming a better writer, trying to make my opinions shorter, more persuasive, more convincing, and that includes not just the logic of the opinion. There is a way to be fair and impartial and to touch people’s hearts. I think that’s what legal opinions have to make you do.”
During the event, the Justice discussed her favorite president: Abraham Lincoln, who “grieved for the soldiers who were dying but understood that segregation and unequal treatment of human beings would mar us forever if a step wasn’t taken to eliminate slavery”; and her favorite cartoon hero: Wolverine, “who would rather be on his own but always gets pulled in to do the right thing.”
Shortly before President Barack Obama nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009, he interviewed Justice Sotomayor. She told him she knew he had to pick from among three candidates. “I said, ‘Mr. President, I know you have a hard choice. I am going to be happy whether you pick me or you don’t. I feel honored that I was even considered. I love what I do. I’m just happy I was here.’”
Justice Sotomayor encouraged the students to develop their civic duty and to “be an active voice in promoting new discoveries. Doctors, you need to be involved. Laws get made by people who want them passed and get changed when other people don’t want them anymore. There are no bystanders in life.” She said she takes time to feed the homeless in Washington, D.C., and is involved in college-bound mentoring programs.
In concluding the event—moments before inspired audience members eagerly lined up to shake hands with Justice Sotomayor—Dr. Davis said, “In 45 years at Mount Sinai, this is one of the most remarkable hours I have ever spent.”