Monday, June 1, 2009

Evidence of "reverse racism"?

Is Sonia Sotomayor a "reverse racist"? A member of the Latino KKK? Does she stand apart from other judges in her efforts to right past injustices? Well, we could look at one speech she gave in Berkeley a few years ago, or we could examine 96 court cases in which she actually ruled on race. Scotusblog chose the latter approach (thanks to Chris Federico for the link):
In sum, in an eleven-year career on the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor has participated in roughly 100 panel decisions involving questions of race and has disagreed with her colleagues in those cases (a fair measure of whether she is an outlier) a total of 4 times. Only one case (Gant) in that entire eleven years actually involved the question whether race discrimination may have occurred. (In another case (Pappas) she dissented to favor a white bigot.) She participated in two other panels rejecting district court rulings agreeing with race-based jury-selection claims. Given that record, it seems absurd to say that Judge Sotomayor allows race to infect her decisionmaking.
Hmm. She sounds pretty mainstream. Or maybe Newt is right that she's this week's Threat to American Civilization (TM).

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