Doug Mills / The New York Times

Justice Sotomayor sits with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg '54.

October 16, 2018

EDITORIAL: Hurrah For A Sensible Sotomayor Setup

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Cornell has decided to reverse course and will now record Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Thursday talk in Bailey Hall, and we at The Sun could not be more pleased. This way, as the first snow of the winter descends upon Ithaca, Justice Sotomayor’s “fireside chat” will warm not just a few hundred undergraduates in Bailey Hall, but also the thousands of Cornellians who couldn’t secure a seat.

It never quite made sense why the event would be neither livestreamed nor recorded. After all, the Supremes (including Sotomayor) give recorded speeches at universities all the time, and there is no apparent reason why this event should be different. Talk about a misguided attempt to make Cornell “unique.”

Truth be told, we are still puzzled by how we got into this whole situation. After the initial announcement stated that the talk would “not be livestreamed or recorded,” the University indicated that this was not their decision, but that of the Supreme Court itself. And yet, when reporters from The Sun contacted the court for clarification, a spokeswoman clearly stated that the court was under the impression Cornell would be recording and disseminating it, and evidently took no issue with that arrangement.

Whose choice was it? Cornell’s? The court’s? The all-powerful weather deities who decided to curse Ithaca? We would certainly like to know, if only so that the next time Sotomayor or any other justice comes to Cornell (except Kavanaugh, who can stay far, far away from here), we don’t have to engage in a similar fracas.

For now, all that’s left to do is bundle up tight, line up early and enjoy an afternoon with one of the sharpest legal minds in America. Hurrah!