tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post8694735416613836369..comments2023-10-24T11:23:31.580-04:00Comments on Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: What Sandra Day O'Connor SaidWilliam A. Jacobsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16433685588536441422noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-50731661547066516172009-06-03T15:10:40.219-04:002009-06-03T15:10:40.219-04:00Consider this ...
First, we have Sotomayor's ...Consider this ...<br /><br />First, we have Sotomayor's provocative statement: <br /><br />"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."<br /><br />She is passing what she considers to be a fact that her identity affects her legal decisions. Whether that identity is along race, ethnicity, gender, or age is irrelevant. The point is that she recognizes there is a hue applied to her legal decisions as a result of her collective experiences, i.e. her identity. <br /><br />Second, everyone has an identity. I state this as fact.<br /><br />What we're left with is the very subjective - and what I consider to be offensive - word "better". I won't call it racist as many have, but it certainly betrays a prejudice on Sotomayor's part. For my part, it sounds arrogant and, frankly, there's only so much you-haven't-walked-a-mile-in-my-shoes I can take. Especially from someone who attended Princeton and Yale. <br /><br />Nevertheless, the offensive insinuation that her experiences somehow create a superior decision-making ability within her is ultimately just an opinion. I don't doubt that it would cause her to arrive at different legal decisions, but I don't doubt that other judges arrive at identity-influenced decisions either. (I say different, she says better – two sides of the same coin.) In other words, there is nothing going on here that isn't already being done.<br /><br />While I'm uncomfortable with her "better" talk, I'm genuinely troubled that she thinks policy is made in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. A recent NY Times article published the following:<br /><br />This month, for example, a video surfaced of Judge Sotomayor asserting in 2005 that a "court of appeals is where policy is made." She then immediately adds: "And I know — I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know. O.K. I know. I’m not promoting it. I’m not advocating it. I’m — you know."<br /><br />Talk like that is fine for anybody other than a judge. The problem, of course, is that she is a judge and she is in the running for the highest court in the land. <br /><br />I don’t think Sotomayor should be a Supreme Court Justice because I don’t think interpreting the law is the extent of her ambitions. However, her admission that her legal decisions were/are/would be affected by her identity is less of a concern to me, regardless of how inelegantly she chooses to express herself.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14632450321563202010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-81094353625406243952009-06-02T09:27:05.598-04:002009-06-02T09:27:05.598-04:00btw, doesn't all this mean that Soto is a terrible...btw, doesn't all this mean that Soto is a terrible researcher, too. her quote says she isn't sure O'Connor said it, but if this is from an article written by her, then there really is no doubt.<br /><br />But yes, 100% what O'Connor said. No better refutation could be imagined.A.W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/10876021589516844048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-39475743238768197142009-06-01T23:45:40.758-04:002009-06-01T23:45:40.758-04:00Thanks so much for posting O'Connor's original art...Thanks so much for posting O'Connor's original article- that was really interesting! O'Connor wasn't that great of a judge, by the way. She was the swing judge because she was weak.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-17667477486828675202009-06-01T23:44:09.599-04:002009-06-01T23:44:09.599-04:00Of course, a wise old woman would have gone throug...Of course, a wise old woman would have gone through menopause, so she's basically functioning with male hormones. Maybe that's why she's reaching a wise decision. Ann Coulter joking around said that it was a pity women got the vote, because if they didn't vote, conservatives would always be in office. In my experience, women are less rational, including myself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-20202107995291715662009-06-01T18:44:49.305-04:002009-06-01T18:44:49.305-04:00You're welcome.You're welcome.JohnJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10266279598834981249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-69055980731963160342009-06-01T15:21:56.519-04:002009-06-01T15:21:56.519-04:00What is really important is that O'Connor was righ...What is really important is that O'Connor was right, as anyone with any experience with women lawyers, bankers ad executives of all kinds can testify. Even more, how does Sotomayor's Latin heritage affect her decisions? If she were correct, her decisions and those of Miguel Estrada would bear some Latin-based resemblance. <br /><br />It's a shame that such manifestly wrong nonsense has so many followers in the academey and elsewhere.J. E. Burkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08682657792334163396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522121129844880066.post-84717619130126142732009-06-01T15:03:31.755-04:002009-06-01T15:03:31.755-04:00Would it not be reasonable to ask Judge Sotomayor ...Would it not be reasonable to ask Judge Sotomayor to poduce an intellectually honest logical demonstration of the falsity of her assertion? If she can't or won't, that should tell us something of where she actually stands.davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04019387400069473807noreply@blogger.com