Litigation

Times Column Cites Brennan Panel, Sotomayor Debate

By Charlie Hall

In a column called “What Kind of Judges Do We Want,” law professor Stanley Fish dissects questions raised by the Sonia Sot0mayor nomination, including the role of “empathy” and personal background in judicial decision-making.

The backdrop of the column is a panel hosted last week by the Brennan Center for Justice on judging, which is described in a BCJ blog item by Ciara Torres-Spelliscy.

Fish’s column noted his frustration with the word “empathy,” a quality Obama said he wanted in a justice, but which has been a lightning rod for conservative critics of Sotomayor, who say it’s a code word for liberal activism. And Fish took aim at an oft-criticized remark by Sotomayor that she might make better decisions because she is a Hispanic woman.

“No one perspective suffices to capture all aspects of reality and that, therefore, the presence in the interpretive arena of multiple perspectives is a good thing. In a given instance, the ?Latina Judge? might reach a better decision not because she was better in some absolute, racial sense, but because she was better acquainted than her brethren with some aspects of the situation they were considering.”

To see the full column, click here. To see Justice at Stake’s resource page on the Sotomayor nomination, click here.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 23, 2009 (boomark / email).