May 26, 2009
Quotes from Judge Sotomayor
This Sonia Sotomayor quote from a 2001 lecture at the Berkeley School of Law has been getting a lot of attention…
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.…but as Peter Kirsanow has pointed out at National Review Online, an earlier section of the same lecture is potentially more troubling…
Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.It will certainly be fair game to ask Judge Sotomayor to expand on what kinds of national-origin based physiological differences she believes are relevant to performing the duties of a judge.
I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.
Reverse "Latina woman" and "white male" in that statement and tell me if the speaker would even have a law license when the brouhaha was over.
Posted by: EMT at May 26, 2009 8:05 PMHa! You cued up my point, EMT.
We don't have to wonder. It happened to Larry Summers when he made comments about women. He was forced to step down as president of Harvard.
"He offered three possible explanations, in declining order of importance, for the small number of women in high-level positions in science and engineering. The first was the reluctance or inability of women who have children to work 80-hour weeks.
The second point was that fewer girls than boys have top scores on science and math tests in late high school years. ''I said no one really understands why this is, and it's an area of ferment in social science," Summers said in an interview Saturday. ''Research in behavioral genetics is showing that things people previously attributed to socialization weren't" due to socialization after all.
This was the point that most angered some of the listeners, several of whom said Summers said that women do not have the same ''innate ability" or ''natural ability" as men in some fields."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_women_draw_fire/
Inherent physiological traits?Julius Streicher anyone?Remember him,the Nazi propagandist who reminded us that all those Jooos have long noses?
This is what she's flirting with by bringing up ethnic determinism.
If this is what judicial emphathy is all about,I,d rather walk through the back door to hell,wait a minute,I,ve already been there.It,s the RI court system.
Posted by: Paul Kelly at May 27, 2009 12:44 AM>>Reverse "Latina woman" and "white male" in that statement and tell me if the speaker would even have a law license when the brouhaha was over.
Indeed, EMT.
Superficially it's all about equality and "diversity."
But in application (and ultimate intent) it's about selective enforcement, and thus power wielded against the "other side" ... and thus in creating sides it's perpetuating differentiation and inequality.
Which is intended - "raising class consciousness" has an old shibboleth of Marxists that has been extended beyond economics to encompass ethnicity and gender.
They have to build "us vs. them" and resentment to build their power.
Though they will say the opposite, they really DON'T want equal opportunity or "judging by the content of one's character."
Posted by: Tom W at May 27, 2009 8:49 AM Well, after her injunction barring the baseball owners from locking players out of training camp essentially ended the 1994-95 strike, you know that tower of entreprenurial genius Bud Selig and all the owners will be working hard to fight the nomination.
They'll talk to George Steinbrenner - after all, he knows a little something about the ways of fighting wars in Washington.