Sonia Sotomayor: Nomination

Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. On May 26, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter. If confirmed, she would be the court's first Hispanic justice and its third female justice.

In 2001 Judge Sonia Sotomayor made a speech at a UC Berkeley School of Law symposium titled "Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation." and said the following remarks.

"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."

Judge Sotomayors remarks in the recent days have caused far-right republicans like Rush Limbaugh and others to say her statement at that symposium was racist. But if Mr. Limbaugh and other right-wing republicans read the whole entire quote (which is below) instead of calling her in Rush Limbaugh's words a "reverse racist" eventhough her statement was saying like many other people have said that her life experiences will change the way the United States Supreme Court's decisions will be made because of her experiences.

"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. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, 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."

Judge Sotomayor's comment on how a woman of a non-traditional background who grew up in the Bronx of New York City would not reach the same but a better conclusion than a white male was in fact not a racist remark. Sotomayor's comment was stating that a person with an adverse background who is a racial minority would have came to a decision that would be more fair to all people.