Thursday, May 28, 2009

Sotomayor’s “Unscripted” Law-Review Article?   [Ed Whelan]

According to Jen Rubin, Sotomayor defender Lanny Davis contends that Judge Sotomayor “misspoke” when she said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.”  That reminds me of this excerpt from a Washington Post article today:

 

Meanwhile, conservatives have seized upon Sotomayor's unscripted moments to make the case that she is outside the mainstream. The two most often quoted are a statement she made about how appellate judges make policy and her observation about how being a Latina affects her role as a judge: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

 

The trusting reader wouldn’t understand that Sotomayor’s “observation about how being a Latina affects her role as a judge,” far from being “unscripted,” was from the prepared text of a speech that Sotomayor then published as a law-review article.  (For more on Sotomayor’s comments in that speech, see my post “Sonia Sotomayor’s Selective Empathy,” which discusses and links to Stuart Taylor’s critique.)  It’s entirely fair to hold Sotomayor to what she said.

 

Of course, unscripted comments like Sotomayor’s quip about how the courts of appeals are where “policy is made” can themselves be especially revealing precisely because they’re unscripted.

05/28 05:35 PMShare