First there was Nancy Drew. Now, it’s Perry Mason.

Sonia Sotomayor mentioned Nancy as an influence when first nominated by the president. Now, she’s given Perry a starring role.

Sotomayor brought up the TV lawyer (played by actor Raymond Burr) in an exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). The nominee referred to an episode of the 1960s series when Perry spoke after trial to the prosecutor in the show. Perry’s client had been exonerated of a murder, and the real culprit was eventually identified. As Sotomayor tells it, Perry asked the prosecutor if he wasn’t troubled that he had spent so much time prosecuting Perry’s client only to find he was innocent. “My job as a prosecutor is to do justice,” Sotomayor quotes the prosecutor as saying. “And justice is served when a guilty man is convicted and an innocent man is not.”

The impact on Sotomayor: “I thought to myself, that’s amazing — to be able to serve that role.” Sotomayor raised the TV episode by way of explaining one of her inspirations for later becoming a prosecutor.

I’m not certain about this, but I don’t remember any other recent Supreme Court nominee (Roberts, Alito, Breyer, Ginsburg) mentioning as frequently characters from popular culture. I find this refreshing — and not just because I, too, was a Perry Mason fan. (Don’t bother asking how old I am!) For people unfamiliar with Chevron deference, the doctrine of incorporation or stare decisis, this was one exchange that was accessible, even if you weren’t familiar with Perry Mason. It humanized Sotomayor and helped shed light on how she thinks about the justice system at its loftiest — as a means of ensuring the fair treatment of all who come in contact with it.

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