Sonia Sotomayor’s notorious “wise Latina” statement, arguing that Latina women make better judges than white men, turns out to be far from an isolated misstatement:
Reams of documents . . . reveal [Sonia Sotomayor] has spoken repeatedly about how her gender and Latina heritage affect her judging.
The federal appeals court judge divulged new details about her finances and provided three decades of writings, speeches and rulings that give both supporters and critics fresh fodder for the coming debate on her confirmation. They include more instances in which she said she hopes a “wise Latina” would reach a better decision than a man without that experience.
The comments in 2002 and 2003 echo a much-criticized remark she made in 2001 at the University of California-Berkeley law school that has prompted a furor among conservatives who say they suggest President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee brings a personal bias to her legal decisions.
Obama has said he is “sure she would have restated it.” In fact, she said it almost precisely the same way in speeches to the Princeton Club in 2002 and one at Seton Hall law school in 2003, according to copies she sent the Senate.
BONUS: In her senior thesis at Princeton, Sotomayor refused to refer to the U.S. Congress by its correct name, preferring the term “North American Congress.” K.C. Johnson remarks that that terminology, although (not to put too fine a point on it) incorrect, “was very trendy, and not uncommon, among the Latin Americanist fringe of the academy” at the time. (Via Instapundit.)
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