Would Obama have been ok with this from Hillary Clinton?
"I would hope that a wise Latina white woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white mixed race male who hasn't lived that life."
No.
Stack that with Sotomayor's perfunctory denial of equality under the law to whites in Ricci v. DeStefano and her tittering affirmation that policy is made in Appeal Courts and her leadership role in La Raza (The Race) and it seems that she's either a racist, a chauvinist or a pc hack or all of the above. Everyone knows that there's no way a conservative could overcome such a record to be appointed to The Supreme Court and no Senator who puts country before politics should approve this awful nomination.
Ironically liberals have their doubts too since no-one knows her view on Roe v. Wade. As a betting man I'm happy to take long odds against this nomination succeeding. Note that The Supreme Court will probably rule on Ricci v. Destefano before Senate hearings are complete. Whatever the ruling, it will include excoriating commentary upon the injustice of Sotomayor's judgement from judges who believe in equality before the law. Just one memorable phrase in that commentary can sink the nomination of this casual racist. Chief Justice Roberts was definitive in 2007:
The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race
I do have mixed feelings since something tells me that Sotomayor, once appointed, might decide that Roe v. Wade was a mistake. She is Catholic after all and would make 6 Roman Candles out of the 9. But I nominate another Puerto Rican from the South Bronx,
Judge José Cabranes, who wrote of Sotomayor's judgement in
Ricci:
This per curiam opinion adopted in toto the reasoning of the District Court, without further elaboration or substantive comment, and thereby converted a lengthy, unpublished district court opinion, grappling with significant constitutional and statutory claims of first impression, into the law of this Circuit. It did so, moreover, in an opinion that lacks a clear statement of either the claims raised by the plaintiffs or the issues on appeal. Indeed, the opinion contains no reference whatsoever to the constitutional claims at he core of this case, and a casual reader of the opinion could be excused for wondering whether a learning disability played at least as much a role in this case as the alleged racial discrimination. This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal.
Altogether now sing "Fuhgeddaboudit, he ain't a broad." Well, this is my judgement:
The way to stop discrimination on the basis of gender is to stop discriminating on the basis of gender
