Supreme Court decides Ricci Case

So now you believe that Pat Buchanon speaks for ALL conservatives?
Or even a large percentage of them?

Conservatives appear to believe, if a minority takes a slot in a military academy or a university,
then the slot was taken away from a deserving white male by a less deserving minority.

Quote:

So now you believe that Pat Buchanon speaks for ALL conservatives?
Or even a large percentage of them?

I choose B. I believe that Pat Buchanan speaks for a large percentage of conservatives.

Debra Law wrote: Conservatives appear to believe, if a minority takes a slot in a military academy or a university, then the slot was taken away from a deserving white male by a less deserving minority.

Bullshit! Only a Latina thinks this way.

This weekend's conference, illustrated by its name, is bound to examine issues that I hope will identify the efforts and solutions that will assist our communities. The focus of my speech tonight, however, is not about the struggle to get us where we are and where we need to go but instead to discuss with you what it all will mean to have more women and people of color on the bench. The statistics I have been talking about provide a base from which to discuss a question which one of my former colleagues on the Southern District bench, Judge Miriam Cederbaum, raised when speaking about women on the federal bench. Her question was: What do the history and statistics mean? In her speech, Judge Cederbaum expressed her belief that the number of women and by direct inference people of color on the bench, was still statistically insignificant and that therefore we could not draw valid scientific conclusions from the acts of so few people over such a short period of time. Yet, we do have women and people of color in more significant numbers on the bench and no one can or should ignore pondering what that will mean or not mean in the development of the law.

I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that--it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others. Not all women or people of color, in all or some circumstances or indeed in any particular case or circumstance but enough people of color in enough cases, will make a difference in the process of judging. The Minnesota Supreme Court has given an example of this. As reported by Judge Patricia Wald formerly of the D.C. Circuit Court, three women on the Minnesota Court with two men dissenting agreed to grant a protective order against a father's visitation rights when the father abused his child. The Judicature Journal has at least two excellent studies on how women on the courts of appeal and state supreme courts have tended to vote more often than their male counterpart to uphold women's claims in sex discrimination cases and criminal defendants' claims in search and seizure cases. As recognized by legal scholars, whatever the reason, not one woman or person of color in any one position but as a group we will have an effect on the development of the law and on judging.

In our private conversations, Judge Cedarbaum has pointed out to me that seminal decisions in race and sex discrimination cases have come from Supreme Courts composed exclusively of white males. I agree that this is significant but I also choose to emphasize that the people who argued those cases before the Supreme Court which changed the legal landscape ultimately were largely people of color and women. I recall that Justice Thurgood Marshall, Judge Connie Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to the federal bench, and others of the NAACP argued Brown v. Board of Education. Similarly, Justice Ginsburg, with other women attorneys, was instrumental in advocating and convincing the Court that equality of work required equality in terms and conditions of employment.

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice 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. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, 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.

However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.

I realize she says there should be more minorities and I agree, what I disagree with is her assumption that having more minorities on the bench would mean we have better laws with respect for minorities.

We might and probably would, however, a tolerant white person who is also "wise" can and has made tolerant wise decisions towards minorities in the courts numerous times

and also I pointed out Clarence Thomas has came out against minorities with respect to affirmative action of which i left a link a few days ago so that criteria in itself is not a reason to consider confirming a judge.

It also points to a certain biasedness on her point towards those of minorities on the bench and their tolerance or fairness towards minorities in the courts.

Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.

Sotomayor embraced affirmative action and later described herself as leading an "attack" on testing and promotional exams that favored whites and limited the opportunities for minorities.

Twenty-five years later, as a high court nominee, she is being criticized for a ruling that threw out a suit by white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who had earned top scores on a department exam but were passed over for promotion.

Sotomayor's basic résumé is well known. To hear her tell it, she is a product of the "third world" territory of Puerto Rico, raised in public housing projects in the Bronx. She was socially and economically impoverished. She didn't meet admission test requirements at Princeton University and Yale Law School because of "cultural bias" in the testing. But she was accepted at those schools anyway because of affirmative action. Her success has led her to believe ardently in racial quotas.

to hear Sotomayor tell it years later, she is "the perfect affirmative action baby." In a videotape of three female judges discussing diversity, made available to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she said, "My test scores were not comparable to that [sic] of my colleagues at Princeton or Yale." She attributed this to "cultural biases built into testing and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action, to try to balance out those effects."

More recently, the Court ruled in the New Haven firefighters case last month that the city violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discarding promotional examination results because too many whites passed. Justice Scalia suggested the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional on equal protection grounds, an issue not reached by the majority.

You somehow see her statements as a desire to rule for minorities. I see her words as a desire to have diversity on the court in order to have an advocate that might better understand the issue as it affects a certain segment of the population.

I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.

I don't believe I am going to come to any agreement or even understanding among those I am seeking to;