6/01/2009

A Few Comments on SC Nominee Sotomayor


Although there is little debate on whether or not U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor is actually the first Hispanic nominee [article link], there can be no doubt she is an extremely controversial nominee. Among her most controversial statements is the one that her experiences as a Latina would lead her to better decisions than a white man [article link]. As has been often stated, since her introduction last Tuesday, if a white man had stated his experiences would enable him to make better decisions than a Hispanic, he would have been crucified by the media and everyone slightly left of center and some on the right as well. But, there is little or nothing said by those on the left other than that perhaps she could had stated it better. I wonder how much better she could have stated her view on that? "Whitey doesn't have a clue what we Hispanics have to endure, I am far more qualified to make decisions than he," might have been only slightly better.

Of course, there are many who fear she will become an "activist judge" who will be more than willing to make decisions based on her life experiences rather than on the rule of law. A case in point of this is the Ricci v. New Haven court case where she ruled in favor of the city’s ’s decision to discard the results of an exam to select firefighters for promotion because too few minority firefighters scored high enough to advance. I'm not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV. But, it has always been my understanding the judicial system is supposed to be color blind and the scales of justice are equal. That does not appear to be the case with Sotomayor. I don't want to say she is a racist. But, her comments and views certainly appear to be racist. Is this what we, as Americans, want on the U.S. Supreme Court? Someone who is blatantly biased against those of a particular race or color? It doesn't matter what we really want. Sotomayor is an ironclad guarantee to be confirmed.

Senator Chuch Shumer, of NY, stated, "As long as you put rule of law first, of course, it's quite natural to understand that our experiences affect us. I don't think anybody wants nine justices on the Supreme Court who have ice water in their veins." That is the entire problem, Sen. Shumer. No one thinks Sotomayor is capable of putting the rule of law first! Over 60% of her decisions were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court! What does that tell you? I think it's rather obvious. She is either incompetent or not putting the "rule of law first."

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