David Souter Retiring, Obama gets to make first SCOTUS pick

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

The comment is generating the out of context hype is it because it can't be turned around an appear neutral or positive.

I think KSigRC and KSigkid have done a good job of showing that it can.

If it would clearly be "racist" if assert about a white guy, it's suspicious when asserted by someone else. ("I would hope that a white guy with the richness of his experience would more often than not make a better decision than a Latina without the same experience" seems wrong on the face of it.) It appears to be a claim that asserts the superiority of a person based on that person's race or ethnicity, and generally we're not down with that these days.

Context matters yet again. One has to bear in mind that she was talking primarily about cases involving discrimination. Like I've said before, in that context, the corollary is: I would hope that someone who has experienced discrimination would make a better decision in a case involving discrimination than someone who has not experienced discrimination.

And note how the "I would hope" (with the implied "but it might not") takes care of your Clarence Thomas example, while she specifically refers to cases like Brown to show that she does not view personal experience of being discriminated against as necessary to making the better decision.

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Did you all see this already?

http://www.slate.com/id/2219699/

It's about how the language we're discussing here is recycled from a previous speech about how the richness of a woman's experience would allow her to reach better decisions and defines better.

Note that the "definition" of "better" comes from a White House aide, not from J. Sotomayor.

What seems oddest to me in the media's discussion is the idea that GOP would be actively trying to come up with a strategy for stalling her. It seems like Obama could have done much worst by GOP assumed standards.

WE AGREE! I really don't understand why some among the GOP are trying to stall this, because I agree -- it could have been much worse from their perspective.