The concern is the extent to which the affirmativeaction mindset has permeated our society, watering down standards anddiscriminating against more qualified applicants.
Supreme Court opinions are words for the generations that can affectthe lives and welfare of millions. No one doubts that Supreme Courtnominee Sonia Sotomayor has a compelling life story. But more to thepoint, we need to inquire about her aptitude to draftthoughtfully-reasoned, well-crafted legal opinions.
On this count, there is reason for worry.
Sotomayor herself has admitted, “Writing remains a challenge for meeven today…I am not a natural writer.” Reporter Stephanie Mencimerhas characterized Sotomayor’s legal opinions as “good punishment forlaw students who show up late for class.”
A cursory pass of Sotomayor’s writings reveals them to be clumsy to thepoint of being impenetrable. This comes from her “wise Latina” speech:”I also hope that by raising the question today of what differencehaving more Latinos and Latinas on the bench will make will start yourown evaluation.”
So exactly what does “start your own evaluation” mean?And this ringing — but ungrammatical — declamation: “Other simply donot care.” Maybe it’s acceptable to drop the final ‘s’ in Spanish, butnot in English.
Then there’s the time Sotomayor referred to a chirping insect as “Jimmy the Cricket” — with no apologies to “Jiminy Cricket.” That malapropism triggered asummer reading assignment for the future Supreme Court nominee toimmerse herself in a round of children’s classics.
When it comes to Spanish grammar, Sotomayor doesn’t have a clue. In a1996 speech she uttered this blooper, “in Spanish we do not haveadjectives. A noun is described with a preposition.”
There is in fact a good Spanish adjective for such an off-key statement: “absurdo.”
(For the compulsive linguists in the room, Sotomayor’s name comes froma combination of the words soto (“thicket”) and mayor (“greater”).Mayor is the adjective that modifies the noun soto. So Sotomayor means”greater thicket.”)
Most telling is a person’s ability to think analytically and reasonlogically, as revealed in a jurist’s ability to write well. Here again,Sotomayor’s nomination raises eyebrows.
Ms. Sotomayor has asserted her Latino heritage makes her a better,”wiser” judge. So see if you can follow this obtuse legal argument:
“For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir — rice, beans and pork….My Latina identity also includes, because of my particularly adventurous taste buds, morcilla, — pig intestines — patitas de cerdo con garbanzo — pigs’ feet with beans, and la lengua y orejas de cuchifrito, pigs’ tongue and ears.”
So let’s get the word out to our nation’s jurists, Consuming swine guts makes you a more discerning and compassionate judge!
And when Sotomayor was asked to defend her membership in the all-femaleBelizean Grove, she rendered this risible verdict: “to the best of myknowledge, a man has never been asked to be considered for membership.”
In a 1986 interview on Good Morning America,Sotomayor railed against the sex discrimination she allegedly hadencountered. Want proof? “And if you’re a male that grew upprofessionally in a male-dominated profession, then your image of whata good lawyer is a male image.”
That’s right, discrimination has nothing to do with the actions you maycommit, it’s clinging to a politically-incorrect “male image.”
The real problem, of course, has nothing to do with one’s image ofbeing a good lawyer. The concern is the extent to which the affirmativeaction mindset has permeated our society, watering down standards anddiscriminating against more qualified applicants. “I am a product ofaffirmative action,” Sonia Sotomayor boasted in a 1994 interview. “I amthe perfect affirmative action baby.”
During her now-famous address at the University of California School ofLaw, Judge Sotomayor concluded in her rambling, nearly incoherent prose:
“There is always a danger embedded in relative morality, but sincejudging is a series of choices that we must make, that I am forced tomake, I hope that I can make them by informing myself on the questionsI must not avoid asking and continuously pondering. We, I mean all ofus in this room, must continue individually and in voices united inorganizations that have supported this conference, to think about thesequestions and to figure out how we go about creating the opportunityfor there to be more women and people of color on the bench so we canfinally have statistically significant numbers to measure thedifferences we will and are making.”
If the Senate confirms Sonia Sotomayor next month, it will be only amatter of time until such sentiments begin to make their way into thelegal opinions handed down from the High Court.