HolyCoast: Sonia Sotomayor, Affirmative Action Baby
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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor, Affirmative Action Baby

Does anyone really believe she was the most qualified person for the Supreme Court job? Of course not. She was chosen because as a female Hispanic she could help the president check off a couple of boxes on the pander chart.

And this isn't her first affirmative action benefit:
Judge Sonia Sotomayor once described herself as "a product of affirmative action" who was admitted to two Ivy League schools despite scoring lower on standardized tests than many classmates, which she attributed to "cultural biases" that are "built into testing."

On another occasion, she aligned with conservatives who take a limited view of when international law can be enforced in U.S. courts. But she criticized conservative objections to recent Supreme Court rulings that mention foreign law as being based on a "misunderstanding."

Those comments were among a trove of videos dating back nearly 25 years that shed new light on Sotomayor's views. She provided the videos to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week as it prepares for her Supreme Court confirmation hearing next month.

The clips include lengthy remarks about her experiences as an "affirmative action baby" whose lower test scores were overlooked by admissions committees at Princeton University and Yale Law School because, she said, she is Latino and had grown up in poor circumstances.

"If we had gone through the traditional numbers route of those institutions, it would have been highly questionable if I would have been accepted," she said on a panel of three female judges from New York who were discussing women in the judiciary. The video is dated "early 1990s" in Senate records.
That should make for some interesting discussions during the hearing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What people dont seem to realize is that she had a top-notch education and finished first in her class at Princeton and in the top 1 percentile at Yale Law School. Her test scores were not on par with her peers. however, based on grades, which is what REALLY counts, she suceeded anyone of them at Princeton and won the highest award for an undergraduate in her time there. And by perfect affirmative action baby, she means that since she's a "double minority" and is very academic, she would of done perfectly at Princeton. She didn't need affirmative action. But was still counted as in the school's required minority acceptance rate due to affirmative action. It's sad how something like "my tests scores were not on par" can get such criticism and diffuse like that. But the fact that she was first in her class at Pricenton and in the top 1st percentile at Yale doesnt. gotta do your research people and however said Fox News is impartial needs to die. didn't know such ignorace was still around.

James said...

Regardless of one’s political affiliation, the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is certainly noteworthy in several ways. Not only can she serve as a role model for Hispanics and women, but she can also serve as a role model to the millions of Americans living with diabetes. Judge Sotomayor was diagnosed with type 1 (juvenile) diabetes at the age of eight years old, and she has lived her life successfully rising above the stigma that can accompany the disease.

Emily said...

She is a perfect example of why affirmative action can work and be a good thing. Because of her gender and race, it's possible that she would not have be accepted into many universities or been hired for the jobs that she has had. As much as affirmative actions policies gave her a "push," she did experience limited opportunities because of her ethnicity and gender and I think her intellect and vision are what really brought her to where she is today.