Is Sotomayor a "Racist"?

Why is the Republican Party so out of power these days? Oh, maybe due in part to the practice of taking a line out of context and then smearing someone as a racist. In the past week, a plethora of conservatives have accused Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor of being a racist. Why? Because in 2001, while delivering a speech at Berkeley, she said: “… 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.”

Any intellectually honest reader should place the phrase into context. In her speech, Sotomayor discussed how a judge’s life experiences can affect his or her rulings. A few sentences earlier than the oft cited passage, Sotomayor said, “Our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.” Throughout her speech, she wrestled with how our experiences affect the way we think. She was honestly discussing how a judge, who should aspire to have no bias, will nevertheless be influenced by his or her background. Is she claiming that because she is a Latina she will automatically make better decisions? No, I don’t perceive that. For one, she used the word “hope.” She was not making a definitive statement, but a hopeful one. If judges are affected by their pasts, then hopefully someone in her position will be able to make a better decision because of it, particularly if the issue is dealing with gender or minority issues. But she followed this statement by cautioning, “we should not be myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable… nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown [v BOE].”

Further, in the following paragraph, Sotomayor expounded a little more on what she means about life influences:

“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 that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.”

But does she believe these experiences trump the law? She continued:

“I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires…I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experiences and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.”

When placed in context, there is simply nothing in her speech that would lead me to believe Sotomayor is a racist. For some to suggest otherwise is just furthering the wilderness experience for Republicans. I am not surprised that Rush Limbaugh made this about race, but I am disappointed that Newt Gingrich has. He should be smarter than this.

I hope during the confirmation hearing that Sotomayor will be asked how she balances empathy and the law, how she goes about processing her background and experiences in her decisions, and whether she would ever violate the Constitution in favor of empathy. These are good legal arguments. But to suggest she is a racist is repugnant. It was beneath the Senate to accuse Sam Alito of racism, it should also be so to accuse Sotomayor of the same.

On empathy, I do not mind a judge having empathy as long as the rule of law is followed. In fact, when voting for judges in a primary in Texas, I often vote for a female over a male because of empathy and perspective, so I understand what Sotomayor is saying. Additionally, in reading some of her decisions, it appears that Sotomayor is a defender of religious liberty, which was encouraging to see. So from what I have read and researched, this is not a radical leftist that many would have us believe. Do I agree with her on everything? No. Would I prefer a more conservative pick? Sure. But conservatives didn't win the election. And if we don't change our tone, we will not win many in the future either.