Just plain racism

Today Fox Forum asks readers if they agree with the charge of "reverse racism" for BO's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's statement: “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.”

Is that reverse racism? My answer?

No!

There is no such thing as "Reverse racism". Sotomayor's statement is just plain racist. Terms like "Reverse racism" or "Reverse discrimination" are nonsense. It makes no difference who is racist against whom, or who discriminates against whom. It is wrong whenever and wherever it occurs.

Beyond that, her statement demonstrates that Sotomayor is not a judge who will apply the law as it is written. Race and gender make no difference before the law. To be just, the law must apply regardless of the race or gender of the person being judged and of the judge. Equality before the law precludes Sotomayor's notion that the law should be applied differently in different cases based on race or gender.

While Sotomayor has a compelling life story, that has nothing to do with being a Supreme Court Justice. The "richness of her experiences" is not relevant to the law. The fact that Sotomayor thinks that those experiences matter indicates that she does not intend to base her decisions on the Constitution, the Law of the Land, but rather on her own opinions and ideology.

That reason, even more than her blatant racism, should disqualify Sotomayor from being confirmed to the Supreme Court.