By the color of their skin, not by the content of their character - Sotomayor

Pete Wehner: Judge Sotomayor, in Her Own Words

In reading her lecture – which I would urge everyone who comments on Judge Sotomayor to do – one gets the sense she has more or less given up on the notion of overcoming “sympathies and prejudices” to reach fairness and integrity “based on the reason of law.” The main thrust of her argument is to rebut the proposition put forth by Judge Cederbaum that there is danger in gender-based and ethnic-based judging. The “aspiration of impartiality” is just that, an aspiration – and a fanciful one to boot. Because our gender and national origins will have a profound effect on our judgment, we should simply accept those limitations. Nor is there is an “objective stance”; there is, rather, a “series of perspectives.” And according to Sotomayor, her Latina perspective is superior to all others.

This line of reasoning is at the core of identity politics, which is a step beyond the multiculturalism embraced by those on the Left. She takes a perfectly reasonable and obvious fact – we are all shaped by our experiences, therefore making perfect objectivity an impossible standard to meet – and seems to give up on the quest for impartiality.