Sotomayor Won't Sell Apartment In This Economy
WASHINGTON — Not even Supreme Court justices are immune from the economy. Justice Sonia Sotomayor plans to keep her apartment in New York for the time being, even as she gets a place in Washington.
"Right now I – like many other Americans, it would not be wise for me to sell my home in New York because the market is so low," Sotomayor said in an interview with the C-SPAN network for a documentary on the court.
Sotomayor's condominium in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan was worth about $1 million, according to the financial disclosure she gave the Senate when President Barack Obama nominated her to the court in May. She owed about $380,000 on a mortgage.
It's hard to say what she could get for the apartment at the moment. While the housing market has shown some improvement recently, Manhattan real estate declined sharply earlier this year as tens of thousands of people lost their jobs in the crisis that shook the financial sector.
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Justice John Paul Stevens, who keeps homes in Florida and Washington, told C-SPAN that he maintains his robust health at age 89 by swimming every day and playing tennis three times a week when he is at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Stevens said he plans to continue working as long as he enjoys work at the court. He is approaching records in less than two years of being the oldest justice and in less than three years in length of service.
But Stevens insists those milestones mean little. "No, I'm not out to break any records, I can assure you of that," he said.
He does, however, clearly enjoy the lifestyle that allows him to go back and forth between Florida and Washington.
As the other eight justices do, Stevens often takes work with him, and he sometimes reads briefs sitting on the beach.
After one trip back to Washington, he found himself in court one day with the same documents he had on the beach. "I shook the sand out of the briefs and found it made my neighbors a little jealous of the way I prepare," Stevens said.
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These days, the justices most often enter the building through its parking garage, but most visitors still ascend the wide marble steps in front and walk beneath the words "Equal Justice Under Law" engraved on the pediment.
Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke of how the steps and those words were intended to inspire visitors and justices alike. "We like to think of the law and the Constitution and the great documents of freedom as something that you have to respect and so that you should frequently be inspired and have elevated thoughts. And so that's the idea of the steps," he told C-SPAN.
But the time for walking up those steps is rapidly coming to an end. Workers are putting the finishing touches on a new screening center for visitors that will force them to enter the building to the side of and beneath the grand central steps. The change is intended to enhance security and improve the flow of people into and out of the building
Visitors still will be able to descend the steps when they leave, glancing over their shoulder for a look at the famous words above.
The work is part of a $122 million renovation of the court that is expected to be completed in 2010, two years behind schedule.
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Sotomayor had been a justice for just seven weeks when she strode out to the mound at Yankee Stadium to throw out the first ball before a Yankees-Red Sox game.
Her major league debut was swift, but three other justices on the current court also have been honored with first-pitch invitations.
Stevens took the mound at Wrigley Field for his beloved Chicago Cubs in what he called "the highlight of my career." Justice Stephen Breyer was honored by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, although his granddaughter and wife did the actual throwing.
Justice Samuel Alito, a lifelong Philadelphia Phillies fan, actually donned a Tampa Bay jersey to throw out the first pitch at an exhibition game between the Rays and the Phillies in St. Petersburg, Fla.
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MARK SHERMAN | 10/ 2/09 05:59 PM |