June 8, 2016
By Ian Millhiser
...Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), (click here) by contrast, told the Des Moines Register on Wednesday that Trump’s racism is no more troubling than widely reported comments made by Justice Sonia Sotomayor prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court. “I think that you don’t have any more trouble with what Trump said than when Sotomayor said that . . . ‘a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male,'” Grassley claimed.
In this context, she made the comment that Grassley criticizes: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Nevertheless, she added, “I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.”...
Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” remark came as part of a lengthy speech she delivered discussing how judges’ life experiences shape their decisions, and how they should balance their unique perspectives with their obligation of fairness to litigants. “I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely,” Sotomayor said, “and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires.”
In this context, she made the comment that Grassley criticizes: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Nevertheless, she added, “I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.”...
