I applaud President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.
I am thrilled because Sotomayor would be the first Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent to sit on our nation’s highest court.
I am delighted because Sotomayor would be only the third woman to sit on the Court.
I am happy because of Sotomayor’s compelling personal story, of how it may be possible for her, a person of such humble and poor background, to reach such an exalted position.
I am pleased because Sotomayor is known as a moderate jurist.
Yes, I am proud, because I am part-Hispanic and even though I am not a woman.
But, most of all, I am proud as an American, that in our country we now have a black President, and may have a Hispanic person sitting on the Supreme Court.
Having said all that, I hope that Judge Sonia Sotomayor is fairly and objectively debated and considered for the Supreme Court, not because she is Hispanic; not because she is a woman; not because of her humble background and extraordinary “life experiences;” not because of her moderate record; not because of her “common touch,” measure of “empathy,” “sense of compassion;” and not because she “brings a lifelong commitment to equality, justice and opportunity,” .
I hope she is judged on her experience, her character, her intellect, her “mastery of the law,” her respect for the Constitution and for “the achievements of our founding fathers,” and on her firm belief “in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights.”
I have no doubt that she’ll pass such judgment with flying colors, albeit not without a, hopefully, clean and noble fight.
All the rest, her heritage, her gender, her life experience, etc., are—as we say in the trade—“just gravy.”
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.