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Sonia Sotomayor and the Status Quo
An unprecedented nomination by President Barack Obama has opened the gates for not only a woman, but a Nuyorican Latina to serve as the 111th Supreme Court Justice. As a daughter of Puerto Rican parents, Judge Sonia Sotomayor's story from rags to riches and possibly to the highest court of the nation, has sparked pride across Latino communities and a heated debate about identity politics.
Introducing Judge Sotomayor in the East Room of the White House, President Barack Obama said, "Over a distinguished career that spans three decades, Judge Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice."
Judge Sotomayor responded, "I strive never to forget the real world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government."
From growing up in a public housing project near Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx to graduating from two of the nations most prestigious universities - Princeton and Yale - for some, Sotomayor has reinvigorated the idea that the American Dream is indeed alive and kicking.
"I think it speaks to what people can become in this country; regardless of where the family is from, they have opportunities in this country," said Cesar Perales, president and general counsel of Latino Justice PRLDEF. "It has interesting historical grounds," he added, "people that left Puerto Rico were the poorest of the poor that could not survive, and today are beginning to play important roles that actually affect the lives of the people in Puerto Rico."
Yet statistics show that Sotomayor's success story is a rarity amongst the Latino experience. Fast-forwarding 30 years from Sotomayor's Yale graduation in 1979, and Latinos are still facing educational disparities. Comprising 25 percent of students in grades K-12, Latinos have the highest high school dropout rates and are half as likely to complete college as white undergraduates. Recent numbers from the National Center for Children in Poverty show that more than 60 percent of all Latino children live in low-income households.
While Sotomayor's success against provides a model for Latino youth, it also underscores the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Angelo Falcón, co-founder and president of the National Institute for Latino Policy and assistant adjunct professor at Columbia University said Sotomayor is a product of "community struggles to open up those institutions." He added, "Her struggle, her story of growing up in a housing project, all those things came about as a result of struggle - even the struggle for fair housing."
Still awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Senate, Sotomayor would replace Justice David Souter who announced his retirement at the end of the court term. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush, Justice Souter firmly established himself among the court's liberals. With a hard to characterize judicial record, Sotomayor seem to be right in line with her would-be predecessor.
As the first Latina Justice Sotomayor will make history, but will she leave a politically progressive mark on the court?
"I think that perhaps Obama missed an opportunity here," said Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law on May 29 on Democracy Now! "I'm thrilled that there will be the first Latina on the Supreme Court," said Cohn, "but I really would have liked to have seen a real progressive counterweight to radical rightists on the court."
"She basically, politically, maintains the status quo of the court," said Falcón, who describes her as "pragmatic, centrist, with very moderate positions."
The symbolism and importance of Sotomayor needs to serve as a way "motivate people to organize and continue to press as opposed to feeling comfortable that we have arrived," said Falcón. "With all the hype you got to get defensive around something like this," he said, "when you take an overall picture of the situation within the Latino community there's a long way to go."
17 Comments so far
Show AllJustice has been blind for too long! It's time she took off the blind fold and wield her sword against the rich and powerful. Sotomayor's wealth and power are newly acheived and shouldn't be considered "real" wealth and power.
I think that perhaps Obama missed an opportunity here," said Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law on May 29 on Democracy Now! "I'm thrilled that there will be the first Latina on the Supreme Court," said Cohn, "but I really would have liked to have seen a real progressive counterweight to radical rightists on the court."
Right on! It's refreshing to see someone come out and say this.
Once again, Obama's choice proves that "Change" was just a campaign slogan. I didn't see George W. Bush worry about nominating a Supreme Court justice who was moderate.
I wish Democrats would show some backbone. There's one party in Washington -- the party of money. The only politicians who are worth a damn are Dennis Kucinich and Russ Feingold.
Yea, some people are starting to notice: Obama is the master of the empty gesture. But this is what we should expect. If things are getting sticky in America all we really have to do is dream up a new vocabulary,a different way of talking, a scintillating jargon that can replace the need to really do something. But how long is the rhetoric of "change" with out change really going to work? Think you can revive the economy with "the power of positive thinking", with "rosey projection" and grandeloquence?
Don't bet on it for a minute Mr. President.
We've been having so much luck with Yale grads so far...
"While Sotomayor's success against provides a model for Latino youth, it also underscores the ongoing struggle for racial equality."
She may provide a model for bright individuals, but not for a class, for example, 3 million agricultural workers, many of whom do not have running water, much less health and education services. That is rags. Sotomayor comes from a nice, stable professional family that sent her to private schools. I am not saying she did not struggle, but there is no comparison.
Comparing averages among "ethnicities" is a way to sweep the poor under the rug.
¡Los pobres primero!
Right, how convenient that there is a conservative judge with an ethnic bacground and a female gender. This should be sufficient to pull the blinders over the eyes of the readers of Common Dreams at least and give the NYTimes, Washington Post and USA Today all the blather they need to totally obscure the issue.
These "up-by-the-bootstraps" individuals arn't automatically sympathetic to the "sisters" they'v left behind. She was born in the South Bronx: maybe she got the hell out of there as fast as she could and never looked back. Maybe she looks on the poor with contempt. Maybe she thinks draconian sentances for drug possession are just the thing. Mayube she's a flag-waving "super-patriot" with no connection at all to the spirit of equality, cooperation and community that really built this country. Maybe for her its all about survival of the fittest, zero-sum competition where the winner takes all, a struggle to obtain privilege once achieved never to be forsaken whereby compassion and mercy are considered a weakness of character.
Don't expect the press to probe into these questions!
You purists can't seem to take a good compromise when you see one. Maybe Mccain should have won and then you purist bedwetters would be having another political funeral for Mccain putting another Scalia on the bench.
This is a conservative appointment, made to avoid any kind of a confrontation, presumably so that he can concentrate on the difficult job of :"resurrecting the economy" ( with out introducing any controversial note promising social equality), making peace in Palestine ( without putting any teeth into the demand for a halt on settlements), getting out of Iraq (unless that would de-stabilize the country), expanding the war in Afghanistan (while making friends with muslims world-wide) and working on health care reform ( without upsetting the insurance companies). Meanwhile touting the inestimable virtues of our military elite and going after the horrible cybor-terrorists who are on the verge of shutting this country down.
Obama doesn't sound liberal or progressive so why in heck would he make a liberal or progrssive appointment to the Court? His "change" won't involve any sticky court decisions, things are just fine the way they are.
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!
sad to say i agree w/all your comments, johnshaplin. it's tragic. i feel disappointed, and oh-so-betrayed. it *almost* takes the wind completely out of my activist's sails. but i'm not ready to cry uncle yet; i'm sure getting there though. seems like just so much orwellian double-speak to me; i expected so much better from obama but each day w/each "new" policy or speech he seems just like another run-of-the-mill, albeit articulate, politico.:-( wtf??!!
I disagree with Nebishy Nathan and agree with farmgirl. The irrefutably qualified and compelling yet judicially moderate Sotomayor would have made an excellent SECOND Obama supreme court nominee. With the power of his poll numbers and his overwhelming congressional majority (which he will lose in 2010 as virtually all presidents do) NOW was the time demanding a true progressive pick to keep pace with Souter, much less attempt to counterbalance the dangerously radical Scalia and the "champion of the overdog" Roberts. We could always have gotten an over- qualified moderate like Sotomayor installed when the second judge of Obama's term decided to retire.
Barring unforseen circumstances, the next three judges to go will all be non-conservatives, so the chance to move the court to the left almost does not exist. An opportunity to even hold the line against the court's conservative horde has been lost with this apparently middle-of-the-road nominee. I hope she surprises us, just as I keep hoping Obama will surprise us, but I am not holding my breath.
On the N.Y. appeals Court she ruled that warrantless search of the baggage of two passengers on the Ferry crossing Lake Champlain was justified by the war on terror, in the majority.
She also ruled that a con-man who bilked 11 investors out of a total of 24 million dollars and was sentanced to 15 years was entitled to keep the $1.4 million of the wealth which he used to initiate the scheme but had orgininally been obtained legitimately, in the minority.
What does it mean "she embodies the American dream". How so, specifically? How exactly will her "life experiences" inform her judicial performance? What did she learn in all those lucrative years as a corporate lawyer?
It's amazing how few people protest the vague baloney we are being handed out.
I've got a word for Republicans: let bible-toting lunatics like Cal Thomas do the hollering, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
I still don't relate very well to the back-and-forth on whether Sotomayor is a conservative or progressive. To me the relevant question is her judicial "philosopy," which Obama says he shares with her. To the extent I understand BHO's philosophy, and presumably hers, it's a "pragmatic" approach, which easily translates into the old idea of "loose construction" of the constitution, meaning allowing a lot of leeway for other branches of government and city, state, and county jurisdictions to pretty much do as they will, regardless of "constitutional" restraints. This approach leads to allowing states to raise high hurdles to the operation of abortion clinics, making it hard for women to avail themselves of a formal "right" under Roe v. Wade. It leads to permitting states and cities to enact draconian enforcement actions against illegal immigrants, with detention and deportation without fear of Bill of Rights restrictions, so and so on. As abortion rights are being killed in America by a "thousand cuts" of these jurisdictions, so will any remnant of the Republican Constitution that Franklin says we have "if we can keep it" move into the dim historic past. Beside such considerations, matters of liberal v. conservative, and the appropriateness of identity-based jurisprudence rather recede into the background. So let's get over these distractions and let the real business of confirmation hearings for Sotomayor begin.
You have to sell your soul to be a corporate lawyer in this country today. Unless Sotomayor sees this appointment as an opportunity for redemption, she will not judge with the peoples' interests at heart.
nosurrender, I believe that a snowball has a better chance in hell of not melting, than a corporate lawyer has of reforming. She will just speed along the destruction of individual rights in this country and greatly increase corporate power.
Sotomayer will be to the Democrats what Souter was to the Republicans.
To the assertion that maybe Obama "missed a chance" I say that Obama is a calculating political opportunist who knows exactly what he is doing to insure votes for a second term. Why should this pick be a surprise to anyone?
Obama gave us Guiethner and Summer's a couple of Wall Street insiders, one working previously for the Bush Admin. and both the original cronies of deregulation.
Obama recently appointed Gen. McChystal to head up Afghanistan. What is his claim to fame? The General is Dick Cheney's assassination general who formally headed a black ops group targeting and killing operatives deemed hostile to the US; under his operational control numerous non-combatants were murdered including woman and children. Watch the body count climb in Afghanistan of more children. Apparently a US operation for winning hearts and minds of the Afghans much like they are currently doing in Iraq.
Then their is TARP, and FISA sellouts for his wealthy brethren: the rich get richer and the poor collect a few crumbs of the table, enough to pacify any future riots in the streets.
Yes, Obama knows exactly what he is up to; a cold calculating, power hungry politico, seeking to insure eight years of Bush Light.
Obamas' historical mission is to preserve the Bush policies/doctrines until Jeb Bush is elected in '12.
Our caretaker President.
Hector
What counts is her respect for the law as she finds it. Please read all of the opinions (District Court for the District of Connecticut, two Second Circuit panel opinions, the many opinions in the full Second Circuit vote on whether to grant en ban review) in Ricci v. DeStefano). Then decide. I for one find her votes on this case very troubling. The fact that idiots agree with me does not make her right.