by Linda Chavez
Presidential elections have consequences — and few are more important than the power to shape the federal judiciary. With the selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Barack Obama has begun the process of altering the federal courts.
Sotomayor’s selection has sparked controversy already, as much for the judge’s pronouncements off the bench as for her judicial decisions as a member of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and as a trial judge. Critics have pointed especially to her comments at a conference at Duke University in 2005, in which she seemed to imply that the role of appellate courts is to set policy, and to a 2001 speech published in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal.
“Justice (Sandra Day) O’Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases,” Sotomayor is quoted in the journal as saying. “I am … not so sure that I agree with the statement. … 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,” she said. Continue reading
