Tuesday May 26th, 2009 President Barack Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter, who is stepping down from the Supreme Court this Fall. She was first appointed to the Federal Court by President George H.W. Bush and later again to the Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton. She with the help of her single mother worked her way out of Bronx housing project to become an attorney and prosecutor, and stood at the top of her classes at both Princeton & Yale Law; that combined with her 17 years of experience on the Federal Bench in my estimation make her a stellar choice for the High Court.
However, the Republican slime machine, which has been grinding it's axes for weeks now regardless of who the nominee might be, wasted no time in trying to tarnish Judge Sotomayor's outstanding career in jurisprudence. The main weapon they are bringing to bare, an excerpt from a speech she gave in 2001. I will give you the entire quote highlighting the part Republicans seem to take issue with, even if it is used out of context.
This is what she said: "I...accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that--it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others. ... Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that wise old men and wise old--and a wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am...not so sure that I agree with the statement. ... 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. ... 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 the difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage."
From the usual band of conservative standard bearers came cries of "racism", cries to "withdrawal", "reverse racism", even comparisons to David Duke. The issues raised coming from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and self appointed party leader for the airways Rush Limbaugh who unabashedly decried " ...she is a racist." I seriously doubt you would have to go back to 2001 to find any racist commentary from either Gingrich or Limbaugh.
Picking up the standard this morning on NBC's Meet the Press with David Gregory, Senator Jeff Sessions (R) Alabama and ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee echoed those sentiments. While refusing to condone the baseless rhetoric of Gingrinch & Limbaugh, he allowed their type of misinformation to become part of the discussion. It was difficult to watch Senator Sessions struggle to challenge this nominee with out shooting himself and the collective Republican party in the foot.
All this to uphold the golden standard for Supreme Court Justices as dictated by the Republicans, and that is someone who will be a neutral arbiter of the law and strictly interpret those laws without influence from one's own personal opinion or experience. A novel concept if we all lived in a box. However, the law, and those who interpret it, do not live in a box. The law is a living thing and subject to the ongoing examinations by those individuals who do bring their experiences and personal views to the table when interpreting those laws, If they didn't we would still be stoning people who steal a loaf of bread. This golden standard is hypocrisy at its highest level, and at the very least attempts to undermine the system of checks and balances as prescribed by the Constitution ...and once more we find the Republicans lining up on the side with which most Americans do not agree.
I'll close with this "When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who, who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or, or because of gender. And, and I do take that into account." Republican Appointed JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: During his confirmation hearings January 2006.
When asked about this statement made by Justice Alito by David Gregory this morning, Senator Sessions wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole, ...so much for the golden standard.
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