June 7, 2009

SOTOMAYOR COURT SELECTION

As expected, President Barack Obama has chosen a woman – Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor -- for the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter.

There is another woman on the Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg who is considered a liberal like Souter.

Sotomayor is visiting influential Congress members prior to confirmation hearings.  Her political leaning is under careful scrutiny.  Will she tilt the Supreme Court more liberal or more conservative? Souter is considered ultra-liberal.

Centerpiece of her interviews is her famous declaration to the National Puerto Rican Coalition in 1998:

“Somewhere, all of us Puerto Ricans, and people of color, have had a defining moment when we were shocked into learning that we were different -- and that American society treated us differently.

“The shock and sense of being an alien will never again, I suspect, be as profound for any of us as that first experience.  I know from personal experience that my education and professional training have equipped me to deal better in this sometimes alien land.”

SOURCE OF TENSION

She said in another 1998 speech that the United States was often ambivalent about how to deal with its diversity:

“America has a deeply confused image of itself that is a perpetual source of tension.  We are a nation that takes pride in our ethnic diversity, recognizing its importance in shaping our society and in adding richness to its existence.

“Yet, we simultaneously insist that we can and must function and live in a race-and-color-blind way that ignores those very differences that in other contexts we laud.”

WISE WOMAN

These trains of thought seem to color her political outlook.

In 2000, Judge Sotomayor said: “I have to unhook myself from my emotional responses and try to stay within my unemotional, objective persona.”

In a 2001 speech -- before her Appeals Court nomination -- Judge Sotomayor asserted the year-long delay then was due to “Senate Republican leaders who believed I was a potential for the Supreme Court one day.”

She said: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman -- with the richness of her experience -- would more often than not reach better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life”

In 2004, Judge Sotomayor said international law held very “limited force” in the United States.  Therefore, judges should not “close their minds to good ideas.”

“If the idea has validity, if it persuades you, then you’re going to adopt its reasoning.  If it doesn’t fit, then you won’t use it.”

FILIBUSTERS

Barack Obama, as a Senator, supported an unsuccessful filibuster against now-Justice Samuel Alito.

This time, President Obama bought into Sotomayor’s complaint that “we Latinos have only 10 of 147 active circuit court judges and 30 of 587 active district court judges – therefore, those numbers are grossly below our proportion of the population.”

But, who is counting?

In light of the hatchet-job inflicted on Miguel Estrada – President George W. Bush’s candidate for a court-of-appeals judgeship – it is fair to condemn those Senators who now swallow camels and choke on gnats when liberal-leaning court candidates are nominated.

“Times are a-changing.”

Sotomayor is qualified, and it is time to put aside broad-brush racism for court nominees at all levels and all party-affiliations.

“Let those without guilt, cast the first stone!”

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist