Discrimination is Not Okay

Today, President Obama will announce his selection for the replacement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter. By all accounts it will be 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
If you look into her background you'll find someone who became interested in the law after watching Perry Mason as a child. She's a child of Puerto Rican immigrants who lived with her mother in a Bronx housing project after her father died when she was 8. She eventually worked her way up through Yale Law School. She worked hard to get where she's at.
She was appointed as a federal district judge by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and appointed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals by President Clinton. She's been appointed to courts by members from both political parties.
That's where her appeal ends. In a ruling earlier this year she held up a New Haven, CT City Council decision to reject 18 firefighters for promotion on the basis they were white. The City cited the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the basis for their decision. 128 people took the tests for promotion, 27 of them black. The 18 people that passed the tests were all white, or hispanic so the City decided not to promote anyone.
The men took their case to court citing reverse discrimation, but lost. Ms. Sotomayor was one of the judges who upheld the decision, essentially making it okay to discriminate against qualified candidates because they are white.

She has also been quoted saying, "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."

To me, this means she thinks that a minority has a better life experience and makes them more qualified than a white man. I don't believe this could be any further from the truth. Being a white, man does not make you superior. It does not make you inferior. It makes you a white man, who's had many different life experiences, much like a Latina woman. Comments like this, make me fear that there could be more appointees like this from President Obama. He has said he wants justices who feel empathy when they make rulings. I want justices who feel the law when they make rulings.

I urge everyone to let their representatives know they do not approve of this woman being on the Supreme Court. Discrimination is not okay. It does not matter what color you are. Lady Justice is blindfolded for a reason. Politics, race, sex don't matter when you're dealing with the law. We all want a color blind society. The only way to have that is to not allow people who discriminate to make laws in this country.