The Richness of Her Experience

I have not studied the decisions of President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. I will not speak about her record, because I don’t feel informed enough to help others understand it. I will point out that I disagree with her recent ruling on Ricci vs. DeStefano. The City of New Haven, Connecticut decided that their future promotion of firefighters would be based on a written test. They called in a consultant when formulating the test to be certain it was job related. The firefighters spend numerous hours and a lot of money preparing for the test. After it was over, the city decided that not enough minority candidates had passed, and denied the promotions to all the firefighters. The men who had worked so hard and earned the promotions sued. Judge Sotomayor heard the case on appeal and ruled against the firefighters. The Supreme Court has since heard the case and we’re awaiting their decision.

While the ruling offered by the appeals court is short and doesn’t offer explanation beyond upholding the decision of the lower court, it makes one wonder about this controversial statement made the Judge: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

I chuckled at Newt Gingrich’s response, “Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman,' Wouldn't they have to withdraw? New racism is no better than old racism. A white man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw."

But the charge of racism is not what caught my attention in the statement. What caught my attention was, “with the richness of her experience.” I think this is about the most arrogant statement I can imagine. When I was young, I thought that the whole of knowledge came from your experiences. I thought that your decisions should be based on what you know. I thought I knew a lot because of the things life taught me. Experience has taught me different. I now know that it’s not just okay, it is absolutely vital to sometimes say, “I don’t know. Where can I learn more?”

This is especially true for a judge. More than any other occupation, a judge has to be open-minded and willing to hear both sides of an argument. More than anyone else, a judge has to put the “richness of her experiences” aside and look at the arguments in terms of our societal values and MOST IMPORTANTLY the affirmation of the Constitution.

I don’t know whether this woman is a racist. What I am sure of is that someone who bases her judgments on the “richness of her experiences” rather than the law and the constitution is not someone we want on the highest court in the land.