The Politics Behind A Hispanic Judge

Recently, Sotomayor’s nomination passed smoothly in Congress and she has become the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice in history and the third female to hold the position.

Although the name of the first Hispanic judge to be nominated attracts a lot of attention from the media, as a matter of fact, the entire nomination and hearing process have not been dramatic. Emphasis has been placed on her ethnic background since the Democratic party behind Obama has had the majority in the Senate.

However, some speculation during Sotomayor’s nomination and hearing has inspired some talking about about issues such as racial equality.

During Sotomayor’s nomination process, the opposition mainly came from a group of white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut. Here is the story: In the past, the New Haven fire department gave out a promotion test for all firefighters. Black firefighters did not do well on the test and the fire department eventually decided not to use the test results, fearful that using these results to decide who to promote would trigger controversy. This caused white firefighters who did well on the test to lose their opportunities for promotion, which they felt was extremely unfair. Therefore, the fire department was taken to court. As the judge of the case, Sotomayor rejected the appeal of the white firefighters and supported the decision of the fire department, which she determined was based on performance, not just racial implications.

Throughout the lawsuit, whether Sotomayor’s personal feelings would undermine her legal judgment became very controversial. All men are equal before the law and minorities deserve fair treatment as well; everyone agrees with this value and it is required by the constitution. But is such unfair treatment of white people justified in order to treat minorities well?

American left-wing liberals have a positive attitude about such blatant racial favoritism, even though it seems to be a little overdone. Therefore, Sotomayor is considered a typical liberal judge.

The intriguing thing is that the verdict was eventually reversed by the Supreme Court in June of this year. Let’s look at this from the angle of opposing Sotomayor's position as Justice of the Supreme Court. Right now, Obama wants to nominate Sotomayor to be a justice in the Supreme Court, which once reversed her decision in favor of the minority. The implications of this will naturally bother people. Of course, it needs to be pointed out is that Justice Souter, who is to be replaced by Sotomayor, is also a liberal. Therefore, the ratio of liberals to conservatives will not change in the Supreme Court. Among nine justices, there are four liberal judges and four conservative judges; the last, Justice Anthony Kennedy, sits on the fence, sometimes supporting liberals and sometimes supporting conservatives.

Throughout the entire process of Sotomayor’s induction to the Supreme Court, what we should be evaluating and considering are Obama’s intentions. Obama chose a Hispanic female from among a group of candidates with similar qualifications. We could understand that he intends to show racial and gender equality. First, it attracts the attention of the media. Second, it gives reason for ardent hope to those who desire the government to hold its "change flag" high. Finally, people feel good about Obama. It will strengthen the minority vote and especially the Hispanic vote for the Democratic party in the United States. This will also be good for the international image of the United States.

However, there are differing opinions about whether the involvement of the judicial system in this kind of political propaganda is going too far. Especially considering that white people voted to help get Obama into the White House, it seemed like the United States had taken a big step toward a “post-racial era.”

Now, it is possible that the excessive praise of “the first Hispanic justice” in the Supreme Court will further complicate the relationship between minorities and whites, especially since, in typical "racial era" fashion, she has shown bias in her decision-making.