Written by Christie Turner, MARGARET Fund Fellow,
National Women's Law Center
This post is part of a series about the nomination of Judge Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.
This morning Judge Sonia Sotomayor finally had a chance to respond to the controversy surrounding her so-called "wise Latina" speech, about which, as Judge Sotomayor herself noted, "no words I have ever spoken or written have received so much attention." Judge Sotomayor strongly and clearly stated her belief that life experiences help a judge to understand certain facts in a case, but that the law commands the results.
Senator Leahy noted that other justices, "[our] most recent one"—referring obviously to Justice Alito here—"talk[ed] about the experiences of . . . immigrants in his family and how that would influence his thinking and help him reach decisions." When Senator Leahy gave Judge Sotomayor a chance to discuss her prior remarks, she set the record straight:
"I want to state up front unequivocally and without doubt I do not believe that any racial, ethnic or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experiences."
This wasn’t the final word this morning, though. Senator Jeff Sessions spent a good portion of his allotted half-hour for questioning focusing on the "wise Latina" comment and other remarks made in past speeches. First, he asked her "do you think there's any circumstance in which a judge should allow their prejudices to impact their decision-making?" She responded that judges have an obligation "to examine what they're feeling as they're adjudicating a case and to ensure that that's not influencing the outcome. Life experiences have to influence you. We're not robots to listen to evidence and don't have feelings. We have to recognize those feelings and put them aside."
Judge Sotomayor went on to say, "I think the system is strengthened when judges don't assume they're impartial, but when judges test themselves to identify when their emotions are driving a result, or their experience are driving a result and the law is not." Senator Sessions actually said he agreed.
But Senator Sessions and Judge Sotomayor didn’t stay in agreement for long. He went back to various prior statements that he said he interpreted to mean that "you expect your background and heritage to influence your decision-making." Judge Sotomayor repeatedly and firmly responded that she did not.
She did stand up for the proposition that a judge’s life experiences add value to the judging process but reiterated that those experiences do not drive the result:
"...life experiences do influence us. In good ways. That's why we seek the enrichment of our legal system from life experiences. That can affect what we see or how we feel, but that's not what drives a result. The impartiality is an understanding that the law is what commands the result."
Senator Sessions may have persisted in his questioning, but Judge Sotomayor’s answer was unassailable. We’ll see how much more she is questioned on this subject as the hearings continue.
Cross-posted from NWLC's blog.