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W.H. to Sotomayor critics: Be 'careful'

Anyone hear of this story ? I heard ( looking for link) that some radio personality identified as a "conservative or a right winger " has complained on his his blog that Sotomayor was pronouncing her name "too SPANISH LIKE" and that casues us English speakers to have dificulties saying it that way. He wants her to pronounce her name more "English/American" like.

That reminds me of that idiot Texas legislative woman d who said that Asians need to change heir names to American sounding names because Americans especially Texans have severe trouble pronouncing those Asian names.

I thought that the lowest form of life on the air was Savage, VANITTY, AND Limbaugh but I am wrong there are more radio hosts with the IQ of bacteria.
 
celticlord said:
In such a circumstance, she should. She should have said this:

"I am a Latina--a woman of Puerto Rican origin. It has no bearing on how I interpret the law or how I decide cases."

Anything beyond that is a deviation from sound jurisprudence.
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Thank you. Exactly right.
 
Redress said:
That is a misrepresentation of her position. Have you read the whole speech? It's kinda interesting. Her argument as I read it is that, if you look at rulings, there is a difference based on race and gender, that therefore it is of value to have diversity and people of nonwhite male backgrounds in the courts.

She also says quite clearly, and in fact in the paragraph right after the controversial comment from the speech, that white men are capable of making very wise decisions.
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What does this say to you:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15judge.text.html?_r=1&pagewanted=5
I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.
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When is it appropriate for a judge to have prejudices based on heritage? The answer, the ONLY answer, is NEVER.
 
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talloulou said:
What does this say to you:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15judge.text.html?_r=1&pagewanted=5


When is it appropriate for a judge to have prejudices based on heritage? The answer, the ONLY answer, is NEVER.
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I see it as her saying that the differences which arise due to race or gender, and which effect how judges rule, have to be constantly examined. No one, not you, nor I, nor any one else, can divorce ourselves from our upbringing, and it will, without question, have a bearing on how we interpret anything. The fact that you and I, who do have some actual similarities in our lives(born in the same country, of I suspect both having Caucasian parents, and so on...no need to go too far into the similarities, you should know what I mean) can agree on almost nothing, including the interpretation of written words, should show this.

What I see her saying is that while these differences in interpretation are normal, they also have to be constantly examined, to be careful of them having a negative effect.

Note that ethnic and gender differences are not the same thing as prejudices. It is one word of three she uses to describe these differences.

Now, I am trying to understand what another person is saying in their words. I admit I could very well be wrong in how I am interpreting them, as I am trying to explain in other words. The only way to know for sure her thinking would be for her to answer that question, and I suspect she will be answering some questions on this speech before her confirmation hearings.
 
Seems like a even deal to me.

Alito and Sotomayor have striking similarities

Alito and Sotomayor have a number of similarities -- Newsday.com

WASHINGTON - Look at the resumes of the last two candidates for the Supreme Court - Justice Samuel Alito and recent nominee Sonia Sotomayor - and a surprising number of similarities emerge.

Born four years apart, they both grew up Roman Catholic in modest homes wanting to be judges, attended the same Ivy League schools, became prosecutors in their first full-time jobs and served more than a decade on the circuit court.

And both have remained closely tied to their ethnic roots and the communities where they grew up: Alito, 59, as an Italian American in New Jersey, and Sotomayor, 54, as a Puerto Rican in the Bronx.

The parallels are so striking that some bloggers ask if Sotomayor, nominated this week by President Barack Obama, is simply a liberal version of the conservative Alito, tapped in 2005 by President George W. Bush.
 
goldendog said:
Seems like a even deal to me.

Alito and Sotomayor have striking similarities

Alito and Sotomayor have a number of similarities -- Newsday.com

WASHINGTON - Look at the resumes of the last two candidates for the Supreme Court - Justice Samuel Alito and recent nominee Sonia Sotomayor - and a surprising number of similarities emerge.

Born four years apart, they both grew up Roman Catholic in modest homes wanting to be judges, attended the same Ivy League schools, became prosecutors in their first full-time jobs and served more than a decade on the circuit court.

And both have remained closely tied to their ethnic roots and the communities where they grew up: Alito, 59, as an Italian American in New Jersey, and Sotomayor, 54, as a Puerto Rican in the Bronx.

The parallels are so striking that some bloggers ask if Sotomayor, nominated this week by President Barack Obama, is simply a liberal version of the conservative Alito, tapped in 2005 by President George W. Bush.
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I don't recall Allito shilling for a racist group like La Raza, nor do I recall him making any absurdly racist statements like Sotomayor has. Further, and perhaps most importantly of all, I definitenly don't recall Alito saying that fundemantal rights guaranteed in the constitution "do not apply to individuals", nor that policy is made in the appeals courts.

The only thing they really share of any note is being Roman Catholics.
 
vendur said:
I don't recall Allito shilling for a racist group like La Raza, nor do I recall him making any absurdly racist statements like Sotomayor has. Further, and perhaps most importantly of all, I definitenly don't recall Alito saying that fundemantal rights guaranteed in the constitution "do not apply to individuals", nor that policy is made in the appeals courts.

The only thing they really share of any note is being Roman Catholics.
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He made comments on how his upbringing and heritage would effect his rulings...that's all...just like Sotomayor.
 
vendur said:
I don't recall Allito shilling for a racist group like La Raza, nor do I recall him making any absurdly racist statements like Sotomayor has. Further, and perhaps most importantly of all, I definitenly don't recall Alito saying that fundemantal rights guaranteed in the constitution "do not apply to individuals", nor that policy is made in the appeals courts.

The only thing they really share of any note is being Roman Catholics.
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Other than Newt and Rush saying it...please post a credible link that proves that La Raza is a "Racist Group"?
 
Mick said:
Interesting take, given that Sotomayer herself has injected her status as a Latina as a primary issue. Her observation, that her gender, life experience and ethnicity might allow her to provide a wisdom that her white male collegues don't possess is troubling. Her sense that ethnicity and gender are an adequate basis for judicial decisions, apart from law, is a radical departure from accepted practice. I don't blame the WH for attempting to shut this discussion down.

The test for me is simple; would this POV be acceptable if it were posited by a white man who felt his ethnicity and gender should influence his decisions?
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I agree. The WH should immediately shut this dicussion down since NO other justice has discussed his heritage when talking about making judicial decisions. NONE.

Maybe your test has been tested.

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court

ALITO: I don't come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.

And I know about their experiences and I didn't experience those things. I don't take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.

But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives.

And that's why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.

And so it's my job to apply the law. It's not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.

But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country."

When I have cases involving children, I can't help but think of my own children and think about my children being treated in the way that children may be treated in the case that's before me.

And that goes down the line. When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who's been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I've known and admire very greatly who've had disabilities, and I've watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn't think of what it's doing -- the barriers that it puts up to them.

So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.

Salon.com | Justice Sam Alito on empathy and judging
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BWG said:
Apparently it was acceptable when it was a white conservative male who said during his Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Nomination to the Supreme Court that it would influence him.


"When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account."--Samuel Alito


But then again he is a conservative, so it's OK...;)
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Darn it! I should have looked through this thread before posting the SAME THING! BWG, great minds think alike.
 
talloulou said:
I think it's a dangerous attitude and changes the face of what it means to be a judge. Willingly accepting that your prejudices are going to effect your ruling is accepting that you're not going to be impartial and being damn near smug about it.

Eventually our judges will just be select representatives seated to serve special interests or select groups and everyone will have forgotten that justice is supposed to be blind.
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When you actually sit on a court and judge, talloulou, I'll take your words seriously.
 
aps said:
When you actually sit on a court and judge, talloulou, I'll take your words seriously.
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When you actually sit on a court and judge, aps, I'll take your words seriously. :shrug:

This is a discussion forum, not monster.com. We aren't looking for people's resumes here...we're looking for their opinions.
 
It's my opinion that Alito is a "reverse racist".
 
jallman said:
And you are entitled to that opinion, despite not being a judge, no matter how wrong it is.
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And he damb well better keep his upbring and his race out of the way he rules cases...or the Republicans just might throw a hissy fit.
 
goldendog said:
Other than Newt and Rush saying it...please post a credible link that proves that La Raza is a "Racist Group"?
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La Raza means "The Race" and I'm not talking about a 10k.

goldendog said:
It's my opinion that Alito is a "reverse racist".
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Lets get our terminology correct in this thread.

This isn't targeted just towards you but everyone who uses it.

There is no such thing as reverse racism.

Someone is either racist or they are not.
Reverse racism would mean that someone is not racist.
 
Well who exactly was Palin preaching to in "Real America"?
 
She was preaching the the White "RACE" in her version of "Real America".
How many groups do Newt, Rush, Palin and other Republicans pander to that souly represent the "WHITE RACE"?

So friggen what if Sotomayer wrote a peice for any latino group..
 
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aps said:
I agree. The WH should immediately shut this dicussion down since NO other justice has discussed his heritage when talking about making judicial decisions. NONE.

Maybe your test has been tested.
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I don't know if you are a little slow or just lack basic reading comprehension, but he is saying he has to take account of those things personally, and that they do not impact his decisions as a judge. He's saying: yes, I have empathy but it does not effect my rulings.

The question posed to him was basically "You have been branded here as an uncaring azzhole who doesn't care about anyone but rich white people, what can you tell us to contradict that?"
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
La Raza means "The Race" and I'm not talking about a 10k.
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That proves nothing. The only La Raza I found is an advocacy group for Hispanic rights. Hardly racist from what I saw. Proof that La Raza is a racist organization please.
 
Redress said:
That proves nothing. The only La Raza I found is an advocacy group for Hispanic rights. Hardly racist from what I saw. Proof that La Raza is a racist organization please.
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I've read some stuff from them in the past that could definitely be considered bigoted.

I hate the word racist, most people don't even use it correctly.
Its almost lost its whole meaning from improper usage.
 
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