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My Benchside Manner, Of Course, Was More Inspired By "Night Court"

By Shawn Macomber on 5.26.09 @ 11:57AM

From the Huffington Post's "Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Nominee: All You Need to Know":

She left for the U.S. District Court in 1992. At the time, Sotomayor told the New York Times that she was inspired to become a judge by an episode of "Perry Mason."

"I thought, what a wonderful occupation to have," Ms. Sotomayor said. "And I made the quantum leap: If that was the prosecutor's job, then the guy who made the decision to dismiss the case was the judge. That was what I was going to be."

Well, just because "The Decider" wasn't popular doesn't mean "The Dissmisser" will face the same fate. Best of all, Sotomayor wouldn't have the same ethic or gender disabilities that plagued Mason's career. And, despite what Jeffery Rosen's sources may tell The New Republic or the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, we've seen--as previously alluded to in this post's title--that people can change for the better once in a hallowed courtroom.