PrintJune 6, 2009
Judge Sotomayor's racial hierarchy
On a number of occasions (we learn about more every day), Judge Sotomayor has declared that Latina women are wiser judges than white men. That implied that there is a hierarchy of intelligence and judgment.
But there is much that still needs to be asked of the nominee.
It would be a useful exercise educating all citizens about the workings of our judicial branch of government, if a US Senator were to pose these important questions to federal Appeals Court judge and Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor:
Q: Judge Sotomayor, where do white women, Latino men, Black men, Black women, Asian-American men (which includes everyone who had an ancestor from China, India, Korea, Cambodia, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Japan), Asian-American women, Native-American men, Native-American women, Arab-American men, and Arab-American women fall in this list?
Q: Judge Sotomayor, is there a score for each judge from a different ethnic or racial group? For example, if a Latina woman judge gets a score of 91 and a white male judge gets a score of 6, what's the score for a female judge whose grandparents came from Lebanon? How about a male judge who has ancestors who came from Nigeria? Is that a higher or lower score than a male judge who has ancestors who came from Botswana?
Q: Judge Sotomayor, how should we score judges who had grandparents with two different skin colors? Do we add points for each dark skin grandparent, while subtracting points for each white skin grandparent?
Q: Judge Sotomayor, where do homosexual judges fall on this list? It's certainly clear to everyone in this room that a lesbian Latina woman would get a higher score than a heterosexual Latina woman, right? But, what if the lesbian Latina woman is a born-again Christian and the heterosexual Latina woman is a Unitarian? Who would make the better judge?
Q: Judge Sotomayor, what about religion? Clearly, an atheist gets more points than an agnostic who gets more points than a Muslim who gets more points than a Buddhist (or, judge, do I have that backwards?). Who gets fewer points, Christians or Jews? Or do we deduct the same number of points for both? How about if they never go to church or synagogue? Is that a wash?
Q: Judge Sotomayor, how do we score judges who went to private schools vs. those who went to public schools?
Q: Judge Sotomayor, what about judges with disabilities? How many points should we award blind judges? How about judges in wheelchairs? Do we recognize a limp as worthy of a few points?
Thank you. My time has apparently expired. I just want to add, Judge, that on behalf of the American people, I thank you for your candid and impressive answers. Answers that we've all been looking for. Answers that clearly a white man could never have given with such eloquence and fine reasoning; reasoning that can only be the result of an Ivy League education. And I can only say that I will consider it one of the most important things I have ever done in my forty-six and a half years in the US Senate to cast my vote for someone with as many points on the justice scale as you have.
