The Hypocrisy of Judgement

It should be obvious to the most casual observer that all judges are affected by their backgrounds, personal and political philosophies, and cultural mores. Otherwise all judges would come to the same conclusions all of the time. One descriptive phrase of who she is, spoken by the current Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor, has garnered endless bashing, led by the Fox Network, of her suitability to sit on the Supreme Court. This in spite of a long and diverse record of judicial decisions by Judge Sotomayor showing an exemplary record of applying the law even when she had every reason to be sympathetic to those whom she ruled against. (A prime example of this can be found here as described in Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory. It's a long article, with lots of links, but if you are interested in reading just how spurious are accusations of Judge Sotomayor being emotionally biased in her judicial findings, it is worth the read.)

Of note, here's a quote from Justice Alito at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing:

But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country" . . . .

When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.

The difference between this and what Judge Sotomayor said about being a 'wise Latina woman' is what, Oh Fair And Balanced Ones?

(For those interested, here is a link to the video from Justice Alito's confirmation hearing from which the above quote is extracted.)


Christopher Dinnes
S/S Cornhusker State
Naval Station Norfolk
Virginia