The United States Reinvents Itself

It is very likely that when the Senate is reviewing Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s court record, as part of the process that should culminate in her confirmation to the Supreme Court of the nation, this same Court will decide to invalidate a ruling of the Court of Appeals in which Sotomayor was a participant in, along with two other judges.

There is no doubt that the disagreement of judicial interpretations will provoke bitter reactions towards Judge Sotomayor. But the main reaction, I believe, will be a demand for the revision of the principle which structures the laws of affirmative action of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There will be, of course, those who interpret the discrepancy as a sign of a racial divide which still prevails in the country. I, on the contrary, see encouraging signs in this debate, of tremendous progress and renewal. From my perspective, the country is moving toward racial equality while seeking to shed the heavy burden of its history in the fairest possible way.

Nobody anticipates that the Court’s ruling will affect the process of Sotomayor‘s confirmation or will function as a strategy to disqualify her. Moreover, in a tribunal such as the Supreme Court, where the prevailing political activism ranges in a broad spectrum from right to left, there is no judge who would honestly put forward the argument of activism against the purity of a future colleague.

The controversial ruling in which Sotomayor was involved took place in New Haven, where the fire department called for a review to choose a captain and there was no black person among those who passed the exam. Fearful that they would be sued for discrimination by the lack of black candidates, the city council concluded not to make a decision and postponed the promotion.

The law in question says that no employee should be discriminated against because of race, gender, religion or national origin. But it also says that an employer can be sued if a promotion leads to “disparate effects in racial terms.” That is, if there is a marked predominance of people of one race. The reason for this apparent injustice is that in the past there were often “tests” to recruit personnel which minorities never passed.

As expected, and certainly with sufficient reason, the white firefighters of New Haven which passed the test were dissatisfied with the city’s decision and filed a complaint with the tribunal which at first instance dealt with the case and could not resolve. The suit continued its course and came to the Court of Appeals. Sotomayor and two other judges rejected the appeal. The final decision is now in the hands of the Supreme Court of the nation.

From its ruling, there is expectation for a debate to form on the relevance of the principles of affirmative action. Public opinion reflects the ambivalence about how to reach equality without harming anyone. Associate Director of the Pew Research Center Carroll Doherty says, “Its survey shows that public opinion favors increased efforts to improve the situation of blacks while at the same time being opposed to giving them preferential treatment.” That is, the vast majority of Americans support the goal but they are concerned about the means to reach it. For me, the issue reflects the enormous progress made by the United States in the racial debate and the need to change models.

In this sense, I think President Barack Obama is right when he argues that the best way to arrive at a society where skin color does not define the nature of people is addressing inequality not in terms of race or national origin, but in terms of individual circumstances, which have more to do with education and socioeconomic status than with racial issues.