In case you missed it, yesterday Patrick Leahy compared Sonia Sotomayor to Thurgood Marshall, Jeff Sessions called her a racist, Ben Cardin and Sheldon Whitehouse took on conservative judicial activism, John Kyl advised Sotomayor to be more like a judge he voted against confirming, Lindsey Graham revealed the GOP's secret love for affirmative action, John Cornyn focused on the sinister influence of foreign law. The GOP's key words for Sotomayor are "bias" and "prejudice", impressions the judge herself tried to contradict in her opening statement.
Also, this morning Eugene Robinson shows us why he won that Pulitzer Prize:
Republicans' outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor's musings about how her identity as a "wise Latina" might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any "identity" -- black, brown, female, gay, whatever -- has to be judged against this supposedly "objective" standard.
Also, Jed Lewison shows us the difference between how Tom Coburn reacted to Judge Samuel Alito's reflections on his heritage as compared to Sonia Sotomayor's. Empathy is all good--if you're a white guy.
-- A. Serwer
