Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation through Calif. eyes
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vet Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor ahead of a vote to confirm her as the next Justice on the US Supreme Court.
If confirmed, which most agree she will be, Judge Sotomayor will become the first Latino and the third woman to sit on the highest court of the land.
She will be the only Justice with trial experience, with more federal court experience than any judge nominated to the bench in more than 100 years and the only to be confirmed three times by the U.S. Senate in the same amount of time.
Judge Sotomayor’s identity as a woman and Latina who grew up in the south Bronx in a single parent household, she freely admits, impact her view of the world but believes it an enhancement, not hindrance, in her ability to decide cases, as was made plain in the statement made at UC Berkeley in 2003 that a wise Latina woman may “reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
That comment, along with other speeches, has had many on the right paint her as an activist judge, who, if confirmed, will push her own social and political agenda, following empathy, not rule of law.
In reflection of this week’s hearings, we look back at speeches made earlier this year by California legal heavyweights to two local organizations who will undoubtedly be watching this week with special interest.
Holly Fujie is the 84th president of the State Bar of California, and like Sotomayor, only the third woman and first of her race to hold her position. She spoke to Women of Color in Law at their annual luncheon in February.
Justice Carlos Moreno of the Calif. Supreme Court spoke to the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association last month. He was rumored to be in the conversation for the US Supreme Court nomination and was the single dissenting opinion in the latest round of the court’s verdicts on gay marriage, ruling to knock down Prop. 8.
“Sotomayor’s statements that a ‘wise Latina woman’ can make ‘better’ decisions have brought on allegations ranging from “reverse racism” to “radical multiculturalism,” Justice Moreno said.
“But to acknowledge the influence of race, among other demographics, on one’s perspective is not to say that racial sympathies (even if we assume they exist) can or should ever trump a judge’s solemn oath to follow the law, as some of Sotomayor’s critics have alleged.”
“Instead, acknowledgement of race and ethnicity is an important part of recognizing the need to diversify the bench in all respects, and at all levels, with individuals whose breadth of life experience and thought actually complements the breadth and scope of cases brought before us as judges.
Diversity in law may not just change legal outcomes, Justice Moreno said, but may also change Americans perception of justice.
“This is especially true for the judiciary, because how can the public have trust and confidence in an institution charged with protecting the rights of all, if that very institution is segregated? If the communities that institution is supposed to protect are excluded from its ranks?”
Our legal system is “on the whole respected because of the trust that society has that it will be treated fairly. A diverse judiciary and legal system strives to ensure that whatever the outcome in a case, a party will not perceive that it has been prejudged.”
In an introduction for Justice Moreno, Fujie called herself a “Justice Moreno groupie” and in one of his first examples of the importance of diversity on the bench, Moreno would cite the case that sent Fujie’s parents to internment camps during World War II, Korematsu v. U.S. If a Japanese American was on the Supreme Court at the time of the hearing, he argues, things may have been very different.
“First, a Japanese American Justice would have been evidence, contrary to the Court’s reasoning, that those who were of Japanese descent were extremely loyal to the United States and were not a greater source of danger than those who were not of Japanese descent.
“Second, it is likely that a Japanese American Justice would have been able to enlighten the other members of the Court as to the conditions existing in local Japanese communities at the time, as well as the patriotism exhibited by many Japanese Americans who volunteered to serve in the war. I call this judges educating judges.”
In her speech to Women of Color in Law in February, President Fujie would discuss the embarrassing or disturbing, like how Asian women are seen as either the “dragon lady or Geisha girl”, women being mistaken for the court reporter instead of the lawyer or judge and an Asian woman friend of hers being told by another lawyer that he had “yellow fever.”
“And she honestly didn’t know what he was talking about so she turned to him and said ‘Oh my God, are you contagious?’”
There are “dual stereotypes” to battle she said but women of color are most often fighting women’s issues more than racial or ethnic ones. And, it’s not just about diversity, but respect.
Fujie doesn’t address Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation directly since she was nominated after this speech was delivered but offers opinions on what it is to be a woman of color practicing law in California and the need not just for diversity but respect for women for the good of the profession and society.
“When I think of how important it is to get respect and how, if we don’t have respect, that we cannot lead. We cannot do well. We cannot get power in this country. And that people talk about, for me it’s the most important word in what we do. Because people talk about tolerance, they talk about acceptance.”
“Well I’m sorry if you tolerate something. I tolerate brussel sprouts. I tolerate this kind of rubber chicken that I eat a lot of. I accept things that I cannot change.”
“And thats not the same as respect. You need to respect people in order to feel they are your equal or can be above you.”
But respect isn’t gained with only one person “because one person, they will think, is an anomily.”
Though she counts several great women of accomplishment in California law, she argues they are no different or capable than other women of color and that the perception that women of color who succeed are somehow special needs to change.
“Now we are super women. Were great women. I mean the women in this room are fabolous but were not super human. We are people. And the fact that we are able to do what we do means that you can do it too.”
She would go on to say to the several law students in attendance “if we could hear that one of you people in this room is on the US Supreme Court, it makes everything worthwhile.”
Even as the president of the state bar, she is not without her opinions.
“I’m going to tell you something that I probably shouldnt say in public but it is that somebody told my husband who didn’t know that I deal with all the federal judicial selections and said ‘You know what, if you’re a white male Republican in LA you just can’t become a judge.’
And my response was ‘good.’”
As a partner at a firm, Fujie hears casual conversation among men lawyers that she says makes her “an honorary old white guy” and that disrespect on display, she said, “is very frightening because to me it represents a real backlash, a real erosion in the gains that we have made over the last 30 years because I think that as a general rule I would say that a lot of times, the perception of worth is based upon making money.”
“I hear them [men in law firms] disrespecting women, women partners, me included. I’m the president of the state bar. How do you… you know… I’m not sure how they do that but they do and these are all men who have wives who don’t work and when you hear them talk about their wives, they are disrespectful.”
“And I just think that’s the most horrible thing. It’s horrible for their spouses, it’s horrible for the women they work with because it engenders, you know, just an atmosphere of disrespect which I think is just bad for our profession as well as for our society.”
“…when your spouse respects you, your spouse is far more likely to respect women that he works with.”
“So we have to understand that we have to value ourselves. We have to get respect. We have to be sure that we understand what we are capable of. That we understand that we could rule the world if we wanted to.”
Today was full of opening statements by Senate Judiciary Committee members, tomorrow questioning begins, Wednesday witnesses will speak then finally a vote will be taken. But today, Judge Sotomayor had the last words.
“The process of judging is enhanced when the arguments and concerns of the parties to the litigation are understood and acknowledged. That is why I generally structure my opinions by setting out what the law requires and then by explaining why a contrary position, sympathetic or not, is accepted or rejected.”
“That is how I seek to strengthen both the rule of law and faith in the impartiality of our justice system. My personal and professional experiences help me listen and understand, with the law always commanding the result in every case. ”
