Judge Sotomayor’s record as a federal circuit court judge may not offer much insight to where she stands on the controversial issues facing the nation today. Her tenure as a jurist does reveal much about President Obama’s thinking. Of the many great legal minds of the federal circuit, left, right, and center, the President of the United States has proposed a rather unremarkable candidate who happens to be of a particular background to sit on the highest court in the country. To be clear, Judge Sotomayor will certainly be qualified and capable of the position given, if cleared by the judiciary committee and confirmed by the full Senate.

As suggested above, her largely unremarkable career on the bench reveals much about President Obama. It seems the famed professor of constitutional law has little faith in a judge putting the law before their own experiences and political views. As much as the president and those of his philosophy claim otherwise, justice is, or should be, blind. There can be no impartial analysis of the facts in a given case if a judge is permitted to allow his/her prejudices color their decisions; such prejudices were certainly present in the court cases affirming racial segregation in the decades following the war between the states. But, the decision to nominate Sotomayor reveals not just that impartiality should be discouraged, but that it is acceptable for people to be  judged by the things over which they have no control, such as race and gender.

The choice of Judge Sotomayor also presents a clear case of hypocrisy among Senate Democrats. Every one of them will probably vote to confirm Sotomayor, yet were responsible for the derailment of another Latino legal mind when he was suggested for prominence in the U.S. federal judiciary. A vacancy on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia in 2002 led to the selection of lawyer and former U.S. Attorney Miguel Estrada by President George W. Bush to fill the post. Senate Democrats responded by filibustering Estrada, and he withdrew his name from consideration. Despite claims to the contrary for the Democratic Party, this is not a matter of race, but of ideology. In such a line of thinking, one cannot really be of a race unless they hold certain prejudices.  That should alarm any and all Americans, particularly those who thought they voted for someone last semester who “transcended” race.

At this time, there is no good reason for Republicans to deny Judge Sotomayor confirmation now that President Obama has offered her this chance. However, she should be judged on her abilities as a jurist, and not by her race or sex. Republican lawmakers are right when they, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, seek to judge people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Last 5 posts by James Kane

• A November to Remember - November 8th, 2010
• On hope and fear - October 18th, 2010
• Expecting Different Results - September 12th, 2010
• A glaring omission on Iraq - August 31st, 2010
• Employing a losing strategy - August 7th, 2010