The public expects the law to be static and predictable. The law, however, is uncertain and responds to changing circumstances. one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage. SEN. SESSIONS: And we really undermine and weaken that Constitution when we try to bend it to make it fit our contemporary feelings of the moment? MS. SOTOMAYOR: Sir, I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it. [...] when I am faced with emotionally difficult situations for the defendants and their families, often I get a lot of letters from heart-broken family members. And at sentencing I would explain to them that as much as I understand their pain, that I have a greater obligation to society, to follow the law in the way that it's set forth. [...] SEN. ASHCROFT: I agree with them. And think it's good that they were amended. So, I, you know, I accept the process. So, in your judgment, you wouldn't read additional rights into the Constitution, like a right for homosexual conduct on the part of a prisoner. MS. SOTOMAYOR: I can't do it, sir. I can't do it because it is so contrary to what I am as a lawyer, and as a judge. The Constitution is what it is. We cannot read rights into them. They have been created for us.