Disorder In the Court

Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choice for the Supreme Court, is under fire for her comment from 2001 that she thought a wise Hispanic woman with her background could make a more informed judicial decision than a white male jurist without a similar background. Although Sotomayor has sought to clarify her statement, explaining that she meant to say her upbringing gives her a unique perspective on the bench, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich have called for her to withdraw her nomination.

This remark was unearthed just as the Supreme Court is about to visit a case in which eighteen white firemen scored high on promotional tests but had their results rendered moot because not enough blacks scored high. Sotomayor was part of three-judge panel that let the ruling stand on technical grounds without comment. The Court is likely to overturn the decision, and it will likely ignite a debate over affirmative action.

Sotomayor may very well be enduring unfair treatment due to the fact that, while flame throwers like Limbaugh, Gingrich and Sean Hannity have the opportunity to mouth off on the issue of the Sotomayor nomination every day, Sotomayor herself hasn't been given enough opportunity to make a case for herself. Though her comments and this ruling has drawn blood, I still expect her to be confirmed. It helps that she's as wise as the hypothetical Hispanic woman of which she spoke, while the white men she's angered are fools.