Context

[budobudo]

 "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."

This is the quote that is supposedly taken out of context. The explanation I get from most sources seems to be something to the tune of:

She was speaking only

Comments

[mrbobafett]

I think the important thing is that justice may be blind, but judges are not. Judges are human and have their views and judgment colored by hundreds of things, like many people

[budobudo]

I have two comments here.

1. This woman is not an outsider. She is every bit the product of the system that produces every judge.

2. Assuming that an entire class of judges, in this case white males, are tainted by “white privilege” is every bit as bad as assuming all minority judges are tainted by affirmative action style policy or political correctness.

[mrbobafett]

She is an outsider in as much as she has experiences as a female and as a Latino that the other justices mostly lack. Only one other has the life experience of being a woman. Also it's not like she was born and raised as a judge. She has experiences outside of school and work. However I would be very surprised if she did not have different experiences in the classroom and the courtroom than a white male would have had in the same room 15 years earlier

[budobudo]

First of all, I know what white privilege is. (though you explanation is a good one)

The net result is that being white and male is counted as a strike, however small, against a person's value as a judge when it should be ignored.

[llamachameleon]

Opinions are formed by experiences. If everything was perfectly cut and dry, then judges would agree on most rulings, but all the Supreme Court Justices are in agreement on less than half of the cases they see. They don't agree because they all bring different points of view to the decision.

She's not the only Supreme Court nominee to talk about how her family background affects her decisions as a judge. Take a look at this transcript from Justice Alito's confirmation hearings.

Before calling her a racist, you might want to look into her judicial decisions that deal with race.

[budobudo]

These people are not running to be come legislators. Their stories would be relevant if they where. I want to know about how an individual's background will effect their decisions if they are making law. I want to know about their faith, I want to know about their family etc. Because legislators are allowed to make choices based on these factors. Judges are not

[llamachameleon]

You're totally ignoring what I posted. There is no way to make a decision not influenced by outside factors.

I care only about the following. How good is the appointee at reading and interpreting the facts of a given case and what kind of ethical fortitude do they have to enact this interpretation regardless of how it comports with their own feeling and biases.

Well, then you should be totally behind Sotomayor. (Barring any new info that isn't out yet.) She is a respected judge with a massive amount of experience and less cases overturned than most judges. She has more experience as a judge than any nominee in recent history. Her decisions in race related cases are well with-in the mainstream. The SC reverses around 75% of decisions that it reviews. Only 60% of Sotomayor's decisions that were reviewed by the SC have been reversed

[budobudo]

I did not ignore the post, I was merely trying to express a more general point. And your right there is no way to make a decision that is not influenced by out side factors. But the trick is to fight as hard as possible to ignore them. The entire system of choosing a judge seems to embrace these outside factors as not just relevant to forming the gear work decision making, but to that the actual of decision made.

***The SC reverses around 75% of decisions that it reviews.***

That is a fascinating stat. I did not know that.

***You seem to have a problem...***

If these speeches and answers had been on the subject of the best way to prepare noodles for lasagna or the proper way to train a hamster that I would not be paying attention to them. But they are directly display the attitude she will takes with her to the bench and that additude includes the idea that "opinions, sympathies and prejudices" are sometimes appropriate.

wenger musica

[anonymous]

Hi