The firestorm of conservative disapproval of President Obama’s selection of Sonia Sotomayor as candidate for the Supreme Court has been not only particularly vehement, but evinced with the sort of racial code words and lies so prevalent from Republicans when dealing with Minorities.
Let’s look at the first time Judge Sotomayor was confirmed –
Let’s look at the history of Rethugly treatment of Minority Appointees to the Courts –
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit serves the people of Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, states that have the largest African American population of any circuit in the country. Yet, until the President recess appointed Roger Gregory, the Fourth Circuit had never had an African American appellate judge. The President has nominated four qualified African Americans to the Fourth Circuit: Judge James Beatty, of North Carolina, nominated in December 1995 and re-nominated in January 1997; Judge James Wynn, of North Carolina, nominated in August 1999; Roger Gregory, of Virginia, nominated in June 2000, and Judge Andre Davis, nominated in October 2000. None of these exceptional candidates has even received a Judiciary Committee hearing, let alone a vote on the Senate floor.
President Clinton appointed more African Americans to the federal bench than any other President in history. Clinton appointed more federal judgeships to African Americans (63 total) than were appointed by Presidents Bush and Reagan combined (19 total). He appointed as many Hispanic Americans to the federal judiciary as Presidents Bush and Reagan combined (23 judges), and has appointed more Hispanic Americans to the federal appeals courts (7 total) than Presidents Bush, Reagan, and Carter combined (15 total).
So how did the Rethugs respond?
During the 105th Congress, a non-partisan blue ribbon study (issued by the Citizens for Independent Courts’ Task Force on Federal Judicial Selection) found that women and minority nominees took significantly longer to be considered by the Senate than did white male nominees. (According to the study, it took an average of 60 days longer for non-whites than whites and 65 days longer for women than men to be considered by the Senate during the 105th Congress). The independent study also concluded that minority nominations failed at a higher rate (35%) than the nominations of whites (14%).
So the virulence of opposition to Sotomayor is nothing more than the usual…
Raw Republican racism.
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