The following was reported today by ABCNews Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper...
POTUS on Sotomayor Flap: 'Nonsense' That 'Will Be Revealed for What It Is'
May 29, 2009 10:02 PM
NBC's Bri Wi asked POTUS about the Judge Sonia Sotomayor controversial quote from 2001 in which she said, "I would hope that a wise Latino 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."
"I'm sure she would have restated it," the president said. "But if you look in the entire sweep of the essay that she wrote, what's clear is that she was simply saying that her life experiences will give her information about the struggles and hardships that people are going through -- that will make her a good judge. And you know, she was pointing out, in that same essay, that it was nine white males who passed down Brown vs. Board of Education, which is probably responsible for me sitting here.
"So, that's hardly the kind of statement that would indicate that she subscribes to identity politics," the president continued. "In fact, what she really subscribes to is the exact opposite. Which is the sense that all of us have life experiences and struggles. And part of the job of a justice on the Supreme Court, or any judge, is to be able to stand in somebody else's shoes, to be able to, you know, understand the nature of the case, and how it has an impact on people's ordinary day to day lives.
"And so her, as a Latino woman, part of her job is going to be to listen to the farmer in Iowa," he went on. "And you know, if he's upset about a farm regulation. And be able to understand how hard it is to farm. And what that means. And to be able to incorporate that into her decision-making. It means that she has an understanding of what a corporate CEO might be thinking. And she had those experiences as well. Having worked as a corporate litigator. That breadth of experience, that knowledge of how the world works, is part of what we want for a justice who's going to be effective.
"And I think that when she's appearing before the Senate (Judiciary) Committee, in her confirmation process, I think all this nonsense that is being spewed out will be revealed for what it is," President Obama said.
Mr. President...I've highlighted for you the portion of your statement that most concerns me. It's the part you have wrong. The job of a judge is not to determine the outcome of a case based on what the participants are thinking or feeling or what the impact on them is going to be. It is to determine the outcome of a case based on the application of the appropriate law. This is how we maintain a civil society.....by following the rule of law ("the rule of law means that people do not have to answer to the arbitrary decisions of governmental officials; instead, they guide their actions by what is prohibited by a clearly defined law. Freedom, therefore, means answering only to a well-defined, previously established law, rather than to the arbitrary and discretionary edicts of some", Friedrich A. Hayek -The Road to Serfdom). You should have learned this vital legal concept in law school, Mr. President. Perhaps you were absent that day???