I have a lot of empathy for Sonia Sotomayor. Of course, according to some Republicans, "empathy" is now a negative trait, synonymous with "bias" or "bleeding heart." But hey - what do you expect from a Wise, White, German/English/Polish/Irish/Scottish/Russian Woman like myself?
Even though I know that the confirmation hearings are political theater, they are still making me crazy. How dare the Republicans rail against "judicial activism." The decisions that have been rendered by the Justices nominated by Republican presidents have reached farther into the personal lives of Americans than I could have ever imagined.
As a longtime journalist, I know how preposterous it is to suggest that people don't bring their life experiences to their work. All the white men in the Senate and on the Court do, Thurgood Marshall did, Clarence Thomas does (though in a pretty twisted way) and so, thank God, do the women who have served on the Court. The only thing that saved Roe v. Wade was Sandra Day O'Connor's objection to part of a Pennsylvania law that would have forced married women to inform their husbands before getting an abortion.(She famously asked why women lost their constitutional protections when they married.) And Ruth Ginsberg noted that she may have a bit more understanding than her male colleagues about why is was particularly humiliating for a 13-year-old girl to be strip searched in her public school.
Grrrrrr. I know Sotomayor will likely be confirmed. But Grrrrr........
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