13 July, 2009 | Leave a Comment
So I guess Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings begin today. The right-wing is concerned that Sotomayor’s being Latina will influence her view of the law. Yeah, ‘cuz all the white dudes on the Supreme Court are completely unaffected by their race and gender. Being white and male is the default human perspective! Everyone else, like white females and all people of color, are special interest groups.
Of course, it’s possible that Sotomayor is too fat to be on the Supreme Court.
There’s something regarding Sotomayor that I wanted to write about ages ago, but was distracted by other things. So I’m going to write about it now.
Before these hearings, Sotomayor resigned her membership from an elite women-only club, the Belizean Grove, because Republicans had been raising questions about it. Sandra Day O’Connor also resigned from this club under pressure before she became a justice.
The NYT: “Federal judges are bound by a code that says they should not join any group that discriminates by race, sex, religion or nationality.” I think that’s a great code, but I wonder – why weren’t Justices Thomas, Scalia, Alito, Kennedy and Chief Justice Roberts pressured to resign from the Catholic church before joining the Supreme Court? The church discriminates against all women by not allowing them to become priests and hold other leadership positions. Over half of the members of the United States Supreme Court belong to an organization treats women as secondary to men. Does this influence their views on women’s rights? In the case of many of these men, there can be absolutely no doubt about that. But you know, as long as Sotomayor is out of the insignificant Belizean Grove – which discriminates against men! – that’s all that matters.
When the men in Congress were faced with Sotomayor’s women-only club membership, they were startled by this. Men are not normally excluded from things on the basis of their gender, so I’m sure it was a shocking experience. On the other hand, women are excluded from lots and lots of things simply because we are women. That’s normal. So when 5 justices on the Supreme Court belong to an organization that excludes women from its leadership just because they have ovaries, it’s not an issue. No one notices or cares. It’s natural! And if anyone questioned it, I’m sure they’d be attacked for being anti-Catholic, anti-Christian and anti-religion. Even left-wingers won’t go here because they are complicit in this. But how can this not be an issue? We live in a society where sexism is supposed to be wrong. But, well, hmmmm….it’s only wrong sometimes. It’s wrong at the Belizean Grove, but it’s not wrong at church. Apparently, sexism does have its place – on Sunday, when God demands it. And we’re just supposed to have faith that people turn off that sexism Monday through Saturday. It’s not possible to compartmentalize things in this way and anyone who thinks it is is crazy.
I await the day when people have the courage to discuss these issues openly and honestly and stop giving religions a free pass. If you want to be a member of a church that discriminates women, gays or any other segment of society, that’s your choice. But this should be taken into account when deciding one’s suitability for public service, especially when one is charged with interpreting the law on matters of sex discrimination and gay rights. It should not be off limits to discuss these religious views and consider them. People on the left who are staunchly against sexism and homophobia, yet continue to identify themselves as members of religions that do not share their values, should be asking themselves these questions first.
In the meantime, I don’t expect that the religious views of the Supreme Court nominees will be examined in depth. For the record, Sotomayor is Catholic as well, so if she’s confirmed, 6 of the 9 justices on the court will be Catholic. This means that Catholics will be grossly over-represented on the Supreme Court, which should have deterred Obama from choosing Sotomayor in my view. “Diversity” isn’t just a matter of race and gender. I really think that some sort of law, perhaps a constitutional amendment, should be passed to require that Supreme Court judges reflect the gender, race and religious (or non-religious) make-up of the American population.
