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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Sotomayor: Who's afraid of a 'wise Latina'?

I can see how some sheltered persons could be intimidated by a Supreme Court justice nominee who was quoted saying, as Sonia Sotomayor told a crowd at Berzerkley seven years ago in re judicial selection, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experience, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." ("Racist statement," says Rush Limbaugh here.)

I wish I could have asked my late grandfather, a Cuban citizen who graduated first in his class at a Boston night law school that Harvard tried to shut down, what he thought of this. As befit a corporate counsel, he was skeptical of politicizing the judiciary: "I don't agree with the idea that we need one Catholic, one Jew, one Anglo-Saxon on the Supreme Court." Good justices are rare; they need to make law for everyone; no ghetto. (Sotomayor would make the court two-thirds Catholic; nobody seems much worried about that.)

On the other hand, as befit the son of a revolutionary, Grandpa was also an ardent Latin American nationalist. And in our family we knew lots of wise Latinas in his and the next generation: My Cuba-born mother, my Mexican grandmother, my Puerto Rican godmother, and their pan-American amigas y companeras who filled our home en tiempos festivos gave me harto excellent advice, on education, money, women, family, and what constitutes true success. In those cases where I didn't follow it, I came to wish I had.

I expect they'd have been at least a match for Grandpa, if women from those communities had gone to law school then. Entonces pues si, why not put some more wise Latinas on the bench. Then let's concentrate on the main issue -- Sotomayor's ability to handle this big job. Is she prepared? Is she smart? Is she deep? Is she fair?
Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 4:06 PM  Permalink | 7 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:43 PM, 05/30/2009
    "Sheltered persons"? How about just a difference of opinion?
    — chrissmith
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:00 PM, 05/30/2009
    because it's not about latinas, whites or blacks, it's about america, americans and jurisprudence. if her race is more important than the aforementioned, should she be on the bench?
    — tg
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:18 PM, 05/30/2009
    Who's afraid, Jose???...those who understand the goals of La Raza and its membership.
    — sarah89
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:43 AM, 05/31/2009
    If Rush Limbaugh said "I would hope that a wise white male, with the richness of his experience, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman who hasn't lived that life." wouldn't Distefano be at the head of the line calling him a racist?
    — Sheriff Bart
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:16 AM, 05/31/2009
    Who's afraid of Sotomayor? Not me. Who's afraid of the impact her poorly reasoned decisions may have? ME! ME! ME! ME!
    — rudytbone
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:24 AM, 05/31/2009
    Bart, the only reason Sotomayor's actual statement is a little less ridiculous than Limbaugh's hypothetical one is that there's a scarcity of Hispanic female judges, relative to white male ones, if the courtrooms I've visited over the last 25 years is any guide. Rudy is right that her record is the more important question, tho I haven't been thru hers in the level of detail I'd need to support his conclusion. Chris, I'm just thinking people who haven't been around a lot of Latina women might see Sotomayor's quote as more aggressive than I would. Not sure what Sarah means by "member of La Raza," that's literally 'the race', but there is no Latino "race," any more than United States is a race. La Raza is also a colloquial Mexican term for people who are either Mexican, or in particular mestizo, which is part Caucasian, part Indian, which I don't think applies to Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican. Maybe you mean National Council of La Raza, a predominantly Mexican-American civil rights group, like the NAACP or Bnai Brith, with a pro-immigrant agenda not too different from the AOH or Sons of Italy a generation ago. They think immigrants should register and get drivers' licenses - good idea. Thanks for writing. Joe D.
    — distefj
  • Comment removed.


7 comments
About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com
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