Sotomayor Rationalizes that if Minorities can't Pass a Test, An Easier Test Should be Devised

Judge Sotomayor is often criticized for being part of the three judge panel that ruled a Fire Fighter's test had to be thrown out because no blacks were promoted based on their scores. The Hispanics and Whites outscored the black Fire Fighters. Using typical left wing logic, Sotomayor suggests the test must be flawed. Fire fighting is the same regardless of your color. How can a test on fire fighting knowledge be discriminatory? Wouldn't it be dangerous to put the least knowledgeable Fire Fighters in charge?
From Flopping Aces Blog:

The Wall Street Journal got their hands on a recording of the Ricci v. DeStefano hearing that is much talked about when Sotomayor’s name comes up.

JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Counsel … we’re not suggesting that unqualified people be hired. The city’s not suggesting that. All right? But there is a difference between where you score on the test and how many openings you have. And to the extent that there’s an adverse impact on one group over the other, so that the first seven who are going to be hired only because of the vagrancies [sic] of the vacancies at that moment, not because you’re unqualified–the pass rate is the pass rate–all right? But if your test is always going to put a certain group at the bottom of the pass rate so they’re never ever going to be promoted, and there is a fair test that could be devised that measures knowledge in a more substantive way, then why shouldn’t the city have an opportunity to try and look and see if it can develop that?

KAREN LEE TORRE: Because they already developed it, your honor.

JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: It assumes the answer. It assumes the answer which is that, um, the test is valid because we say it’s valid.

KAREN LEE TORRE: The testing consultant said it was valid. He told them it was valid…. They had evidence that the test was job-related and valid for use under Title VII.

I can’t wait to hear the evidence that Sotomayor has that would prove the test was “always” going to put certain groups at the bottom of promotion lists.

Obama wants clean process for Sotomayor, but voted to filibuster Alito

Obama wants a clean process for Sotomayor, but voted to filibuster Alito in January 2006. Senator Obama was one of only 24 Democratic Senators to vote to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of now-Justice Samuel Alito. What a hypocrite. From ABC News:

President Obama's expressed hope today in his weekly address "that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this (Supreme Court nomination) process, and Congress, in the past" runs against another historical first for the 44th president: his unique role in history as the first US President to have ever voted to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee.

So while there is little indication Republicans intend to filibuster President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP will likely invoke the President's unique history whenever he calls their tactics into question.

In January 2006, then-Sen. Obama joined 24 colleagues in a futile effort led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of now-Justice Samuel Alito.

Sotomayor is a member of La Raza

Sonia Sotomayor is a member of the radical, racist, re-conquistador group La Raza. From WND:

As President Obama's Supreme Court nominee comes under heavy fire for allegedly being a "racist," Judge Sonia Sotomayor is listed as a member of the National Council of La Raza, a group that's promoted driver's licenses for illegal aliens, amnesty programs, and no immigration law enforcement by local and state police.

According the American Bar Association, Sotomayor is a member of the NCLR, which bills itself as the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S.

Obama Defends Sotomayor's Racist Comment (video)

Obama Defends Sotomayor's Racial Comment On NBC Nightly News (video)

Rush Limbaugh asked, "How Do You Get Promoted in the Obama Administration? ...By Hating White People" (Video)

Rush Limbaugh asked, "How Do You Get Promoted in the Obama Administration? ...By Hating White People." Rush Limbaugh made this comment in regards to Obama's pick of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Sotomayor said in 2001,

“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.”

Many people claim that statement is racist.

Rush Limbaugh: How Do You Get Promoted in the Obama Administration? By Hating White People

Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled against free speech

Bloggers beware. Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled against free speech on the internet in 2007. A high school student was disqualified from running for school government because she posted a derogatory comment about a school administrator on her blog. The student and her mother went to court alleging her free speech rights were violated. Sotomayor joined two other judges in ruling that the student’s off-campus blog remarks created a “foreseeable risk of substantial disruption” at the student’s high school. They ruled that the teenager was not entitled to a preliminary injunction reversing a disciplinary action against her. NBC Connecticut reported:

In August 2007, Judge Sonia Sotomayor sat on a panel that ruled against an appeal in Doninger v. Niehoff.

Avery Doninger was disqualified from running for school government at Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington after she posted something on her blog, referring to the superintendent and other officials as "douche bags" because they canceled a battle of the bands she had helped to organize.

The case went to court and in March 2008, Sotomayor was on a panel that heard Doninger’s mother’s appeal alleging her daughter’s free speech and other rights were violated. Her mother wanted to prevent the school from barring her daughter from running.

Sotomayor joined two other judges from the 2nd Circuit in ruling that the student’s off-campus blog remarks created a “foreseeable risk of substantial disruption” at the student’s high school and that the teenager was not entitled to a preliminary injunction reversing a disciplinary action against her, Education Week reports.

Sotomayor's racist comments go from "common sense" to "poor choice"

The White House is backtracking on their Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor's racist comments. On Wednesday they said her comments made common sense:

Now, Sotomayor has been forced to acknowledge her words were a poor choice. According to AP:

The White House says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor acknowledges she made a poor word choice in a 2001 speech in which she said that a Latina judge would often reach a better conclusion than a white male judge who hasn't lived the same life.

That's according to presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs. He says he has not talked directly to Sotomayor about it but has spoken to people who have.

Critics have singled out the 2001 comment by Sotomayor for criticism. She was describing how personal experiences can affect judging. She said a "wise Latina woman" with her experiences would more often than not reach a "better conclusion" than a white male.

Does Sotomayor Have a Temperament Problem?

Judge Sonia Sotomayor is well known for having a sharp tongue. Some lawyers describe her as “difficult” and “nasty." Here is a sample from the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, has a blunt and even testy side, and it was on display in December at an argument before the full federal appeals court in New York. The case concerned a Canadian man who said American officials had sent him to Syria to be tortured, and Judge Sotomayor peppered a government lawyer with skeptical questions.

“So the minute the executive raises the specter of foreign policy, national security,” Judge Sotomayor asked the lawyer, Jonathan F. Cohn, “it is the government’s position that that is a license to torture anyone?”

Mr. Cohn managed to get out two and a half words: “No, your hon — .”

Judge Sotomayor cut him off, then hit him with two more questions and a flat declaration of what she said was his position.

The SCOTUS Nominee Media Double Standard

Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor said at a Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California Berkeley School of Law in 2001,

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Would John Roberts ever have been confirmed if he had said,

“I would hope that a wise white man with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a Latina female who hasn’t lived that life.”

Of course, John Roberts never made that statement. The liberal media would have been "up in arms" if he had. So, what does the liberal media have to say about Judge Sotomayor? From a New York Times editorial,

If Judge Sotomayor joins the court, it will be a special point of pride for Hispanic-Americans — as it was for Jews, blacks and women before them to see one of their own take a seat on the highest tribunal in the land. It will also bring the paltry number of female justices back to two. And as Democratic Party strategists have no doubt calculated, the selection could give Mr. Obama and his party a boost with a key voting group.

Hat tips to I Hate THe Media and Hot Air blog.