Ethics

Sotomayor and Alito, Take 2

By Ed Brayton

Judge Sotomayor spent most of Tuesday being harangued by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee about that "wise Latina" comment. Never mind that both Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas made virtually identical statements not just in a speech years before they were nominated but during their confirmation hearings, claiming that their background of growing up both poor and part of an ethnic or immigrant group that had faced discrimination would make them more empathetic and wise judges.

Glenn Greenwald points out, quite correctly, that Alito cast a vote in the Ricci case that could well have had implications for this - if the Republicans applied their criticisms consistently, which of course they refuse to do.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on July 15, 2009 (boomark / email).