SOTOMAYOR ADMITS VERBAL "FAILURE"

July 15, 2009



In the second round of confirmation hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Sonja Sotomayor admitted, during tough Republican questioning, that her now infamous statement concerning how she thought a wise Latina would make a better decision than a white male, was not correct and characterized the remarks as a "verbal failure".


Yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham cited anonymous reviews by Sotomayor's Second Circuit colleagues that indicated her poor temperament, bullying of attorneys, and a general lack of respect shown towards those appearing before her.


Earlier this month, a decision Sotomayor handed down earlier this year denying a "reverse discrimination" lawsuit brought by White and Latino firefighters from Connecticut was overturned by the Supreme Court. Most egregious was the manner in which she denied the suit by simply summarily dismissing the matter in a one paragraph statement.


These three examples would be enough to sink most nominees for the highest court in the land, but in America's culture of "political correctness", it is excused and even discussing these issues is labeled as "mean-spirited" by some of her supporters.


While her accomplishments should be applauded, those qualifications are not so stellar as to make her the best candidate for the position. It is hard to determine what special attributes this nominee brings to the Court, other to make it more diverse. Again, this is simply not a good enough reason to confirm her to a position that has no oversight or potential for removal once seated on the bench.

We've proven that we have become a "diverse" nation, just as our elected officials, judges and special interest groups have decreed. To a large extent, this change has happened over the last decade, and cultural changes like "the diversity initiative" normally takes much longer to implement. Now that the country has met the "diversity" goal, it is simply irresponsible to continue pushing this issue to the potential detriment of the Court.

In fact, a liberal Georgetown law professor, Michael Seidman, thinks she's either intellectually lacking or the Judge has perjured herself in her testimony due to her recanting and refusal to answer questions using the "it may come before the Court" excuse. Sorry, although a tactic used successfully by prior nominees, it just cannot continue to be used as a defendant might use the "I refuse to answer because my answer may incriminate me" defense - weak at best.

Confirming Sotomayor simply as an example of our "cultural progress" must be closely examined. There are numerous more qualified judges available to choose from and it would be nice if someone would explain to the American people why she's the most qualified person for the Court. Without this revelation, it's going to be clear that the Congressional majority is not concerned with picking the best candidate. They will only be making this issue another distraction, when their battle has been already won.

As to the criticism of her "bullying" from the bench, I think we've all experienced this attitude when dealing with some "minorities", especially those who perceive that they have a measure of power or control over a particular situation. I know, racist, etc., but it's time we get honest about the world we live in. Continuing to walk on eggshells when referring to a certain element of our society is not productive, but rather fosters this attitude of self-righteous importance among those who need the "power" to feel better about themselves. In short, this type of attitude usually points to a person who will do whatever they need to do in order to be seen as "somebody".