{"id":529,"date":"2009-05-27T15:25:06","date_gmt":"2009-05-27T15:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/05\/judge-sotomayer-racist-or-repr.html"},"modified":"2009-05-27T15:25:06","modified_gmt":"2009-05-27T15:25:06","slug":"judge-sotomayer-racist-or-repr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/05\/judge-sotomayer-racist-or-repr.html","title":{"rendered":"Judge Sotomayer: Racist or Representative?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh<\/a> are calling Judge Sotomayer and President Obama racists<\/a> –\u00a0and Democrats must be loving it.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n
Newt and Rush pulled out a quote from a speech given by Judge Sotomayer<\/a> at a symposium called: Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation<\/span> in\u00a0which\u00a0the Supreme Court nominee suggested that
\nexperience does affect how a person might understand the law, and that there
\nmight be an advantage to adding a wise Latina voice into the mix of judges in
\nAmerica given that they are woefully underrepresented at this point. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n

Here is the surrounding paragraphs of the sentence (in italics) that has sparked the outrage:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or
\ncultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my
\ncolleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a
\ndifference in our judging. Justice O’Connor has often been cited as saying that
\na wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding
\ncases. I am not so sure Justice O’Connor is the author of that line since
\nProfessor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also
\nnot so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow
\nhas noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would
\nhope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more
\noften than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived
\nthat life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes
\nand Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race
\ndiscrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld
\nthe claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter,
\nbelieve that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different
\nexperiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs
\nof people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum
\npointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so
\non many occasions and on many issues including Brown.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, to understand takes time and effort, something that
\nnot all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their
\nability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care.
\nHence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the
\npresence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect
\nthe facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from
\nmy experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am
\nunfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my
\njudging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina
\nheritage.<\/span>
\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Newt and Rush seem to believe that there is some platonic ideal of justice that can be constructed, regardless of the subjective lens of the interpreter.\u00a0\u00a0 History proves that not to be true and that having different voices in the room improves the way justice is\u00a0meted. \u00a0Just as Thurgood Marshall’s presence on the bench was
\nimportant to bring justice for African Americans in this country after years during which a court made up of only white men remained blind to racial discrimination, so will it be
\nimportant to have\u00a0another women and a Latina –\u00a0particularly\u00a0when she has the credentials that equal any candidate for the position.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Funny that a women who was good enough for the Republican
\nPresident George Bush 41 is now not good enough for the current Republican
\nparty which will continue to shrink as Latino, Black and other minorities
\nrealize that the tent in the GOP has grown very small – and very white.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Update:<\/span><\/p>\n

This post from Huffington\u00a0about\u00a0Justice Alito<\/a> reinforces my and Judge Sotomayer’s point:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Additionally, Sotomayor’s critics are up in arms over the fact that she has admitted that her ethnic background has an affect on her decision making process. Who does she think she is? Well, as it turns out, she probably thinks she’s being\u00a0very similar to Justice Sam Alito<\/a>:<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>ALITO: Senator, I tried to in my opening statement, I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and\u00a0how my background and my experiences have shaped me and brought me to this point<\/b>. … And that’s why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let’s say, someone who is an immigrant — and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases — I can’t help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn’t that long ago when they were in that position. […]<\/span><\/p>\n

And that goes down the line.\u00a0When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.<\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh are calling Judge Sotomayer and President Obama racists –\u00a0and Democrats must be loving it. 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}