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Latina Supreme Court Justice begins work
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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
According to the biblical account, the Creator did not begin with a generic white male and then decide to get really creative and diversify. Even if you conclude that God created a male first (and not simply a human), that male was not a generic white American man.
But the architects of the American experience were all white males (even though the nation was built on the backs of an extremely diverse populace), and, until 1967, ALL of our Supreme Court justices were white males.
This week Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor reported to work for the first time. She is the third female Supreme Court justice, the third not-white justice, and the first Latina justice in US history. She had been confirmed exactly two months earlier, despite the split vote of the Tennessee delegation (Sen. Corker voted against confirmation, Sen. Alexander voted to confirm).
The opposition to her confirmation centered less upon her remarkable record and more upon certain statements she has made regarding her judicial and ethnic identity.
In 2001, then Judge Sotomayor gave a speech to a Hispanic law group in which she stated and defended the obvious: judges bring their experiences and backgrounds into the courtroom. One line out of the 8-page (12-pt type, Times Roman) speech made the rounds in the blogosphere:
"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."
A single line is taken out of context. One need only read or hear the entire speech to get the truth of it. But to be fair to her critics, this one line is ill-crafted. She probably did not mean to suggest precisely what she said (this was a speech, not a law brief).
Still, the real problem with the statement is that it begins the same place her critics begin: with the presumption that white males have no relevant backgrounds and experiences that they bring into the courtroom. Sotomayor thinks that's a bad thing; her critics think it's a good thing.
It is the view of George Will, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Richard Land, and the Wall Street Journal. Not to worry; despite her ascent to the bench, white males with their background and experiences still maintain a massive dominance on the Supreme Court. And white men are still allowed to bring their background and experience to the bench too, as they have done virtually exclusively for over 200 years.
But somehow we've all pretended that the white males are devoid of background and experience. And those men pretend that they argue purely the law. They delude themselves.
With the ascent of this justice, the court reflects a bit more of the actual diversity of the American people than it ever has. And we are all reminded that there is no such thing as a generic justice, a generic American, or a generic person.
According to the biblical account, that is what the Creator intended.
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