Sonia Sotomayor has been confirmed! She will be confirmed this Saturday and will be the first Latina ever on the Supreme Court and only the third woman. While I would like to write more about this, it will have to wait. Maybe I’ll do a roundup of coverage a bit later – for now, here’s some linkage.
The Boston Globe – Sotomayor Makes History
The New York Times – For Puerto Ricans, Sotomayor’s Success stirs Pride
The Washington Post – Senate Confirms Sotomayor to Supreme Court
Posted in political nominatiosn
So I know my coverage of the Sotomayor nomination has been scant, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not following it! Below is a great post by my colleague, Sally Kohn, about why we shouldn’t shy away from the topic of race in the Sotomayor hearings. For more analysis of the confirmation hearings, you can also check out a great New York Times editorial from yesterday. And, I have included the much-watched video of Rachel Maddow reading Pat Buchanan the riot act on his statements about Sotomayor. And now, the video where she basically tears his argument to shreds.
you can check it out here.
originally published at the Huffington Post
Instead of sidestepping the conversation on race and trying to change the topic, we should use this as our own teachable moment for ourselves and the nation. Instead of criticizing Judge Sotomayor for seeing race in America, we should be asking: Why don’t the rest of us?
The area of the South Bronx where Sonia Sotomayor grew up, in the poorest urban county in the United States, is predominantly African American and Latino. In the Bronx, African American and Latino children are more likely to be arrested and tried as adults than White kids who commit the same acts, even though kids of color are ultimately found innocent at higher rates than White kids. The average household income is $29,000; a few miles away in mostly-White Manhattan, it’s $56,000. Only 16% of Bronx adults have gone to college; in Manhattan it’s 57%. Less than 20% of Bronx families own their home, one of the lowest homeownership rates in the country. In the 1990s, New York City unilaterally relocated sewage treatment facilities and waste transfer stations to the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. Rates of diabetes, heart disease and obesity are far greater in the South Bronx than in comparable, White communities.
For those of you who didn’t get to check out the first day of Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, below is her opening statement. For more videos, check out America’s Voice.
Today marks the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.
Tune into the LIVE hearings here.
And for more on these hearings and the attacks on the Latina nominee, check out the America’s Voice blog.
According to today’s NY Times, confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor will begin July 13th. We all know her nomination has been surrounded in controversy – mostly from the usual crowd of extremists, but here’s to hoping her confirmation goes smoothly.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), the chairman of the confirmation panel, says that the confirmation process could be over and done with as soon as the close of session in August. That is,
…unless some people put up the kind of obstacles that were not raised for the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. four years ago.
Let’s be honest, the anti-Latino, reverse racism crying crowd are certainly going to be raising obstacles, but let’s hope the process is rooted in Sotomayor’s voting record, which incidentally has gotten fairly little media coverage. Take action and sign the petition from NCLR to RNC Chairman Michael Steele to stop the attacks on Latinos and Sotomayor.
Props to Favianna Rodriguez, the artist behind the lovely poster at the top of this post.
Posted in political nominatiosn
Tagged NCLR, sonia sotomayor, sotomayor, stop the hate, supreme court justice
Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (one of the “big three” anti-immigrant groups in the country), is now Keith Olbermann’s ‘Worst Person in the World’.
My fellow pro-migrant bloggers and I have been exposing CIS and Krikorian as part of the hate-mongering anti-immigrant lobby for a while, but his recent attacks on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor have really brought that exposure to a new level.
This week, Krikorian blasted Sotomayor because of the pronunciation of her last name. No, really. That’s all the guy could come up with in order to criticize the newly nominated Supreme Court justice. Said Krikorian:
Deferring to people’s own pronunciation of their names should obviously be our first inclination, but there ought to be limits. And there are basically two options — the newcomer adapts to us, or we adapt to him. And multiculturalism means there’s a lot more of the latter going on than there should be.
Click here to watch Keith Olbermann put Krikorian on blast as the “Worst Person in the World” for this ridiculously xenophobic statement. Its definitely worth the 2 minutes of your time. And, by they way, as a person with a last name that is difficult for most Americans, I am highly insulted by the idea that just because people have a hard time saying my name I should forego hundreds of years of family history to cater to their ineptitude. Just sayin’.
The bigger story here is that Krikorian, who has been a resource for publications such as the NY Times, is an extremist whose viewpoints are not credible and should not be treated as such. America’s Voice has released a new report, giving Krikorian’s background, including his ties to the hate group FAIR. Click here to read the full report and post from AV. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with another gem from our friend Krikorian:
While in the past there may well have been too much social pressure for what sociologists call Anglo-conformity, now there isn’t enough. I think that’s a concern that most Americans share at some level…
And this guy is considered a “reliable source” of information on immigration-related issues? Yikes. More evidence of how the extreme has become mainstream in the immigration debate. It’s time to return to common sense, people. Sotomayor’s last name is not a threat to America. I can’t believe I even had to type that.
This morning I was reading all the commentary that is rolling in about how Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor is a move to “buy time” on immigration reform for the administration. And, frankly, I think that folks are wrong about this. Below is an excellent post from Frank Sherry at America’s Voice about exactly why reform will move forward, regardless of Sotomayor and the attention her nomination is garnering.
Originally posted at America’s Voice and cross-posted at the Huffington Post:
Question on Sotomayor: What does Obama’s SCOTUS Nomination have to do with Immigration Reform?
Answer: Nada.
Well, almost nothing. To watch the coverage on mainstream news and in the blogosphere one might think exactly the opposite, however.
Check out this video from the Obama camp that features the Prez discussing his announcement of Sonia Sotomayor as the nominee for the next Supreme Court Justice.
After a few days away, I came back to some great news this morning. Today President Obama announced his nomination of Sonia Sotomayer as the next Supreme Court Justice. Sotomayer’s nomination is historic: if confirmed, she would be only the second woman on the court and the first Latina. The blogosphere is abuzz with the excitement around this nomination and I must say I couldn’t be more encouraged with Obama’s choice.
From humble beginnings in a housing project in the Bronx, Sotomayer overcame barriers and obstacles to attend Yale Law School and continued on to a prestigious law career in New York.
Sotomayer, whose parents are originally from Puerto Rico, represents the face of New America and the American Dream personified. The following quote from Sotomayer was published in the Spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, a symposium issue entitled “Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation”:
Who am I? I am a “Newyorkrican.” For those of you on the West Coast who do not know what that term means: I am a born and bred New Yorker of Puerto Rican-born parents who came to the states during World War II.
Like many other immigrants to this great land, my parents came because of poverty and to attempt to find and secure a better life for themselves and the family that they hoped to have. They largely succeeded. For that, my brother and I are very grateful. The story of that success is what made me and what makes me the Latina that I am. The Latina side of my identity was forged and closely nurtured by my family through our shared experiences and traditions.
This historic nomination of not only a woman, but a Latina is an inspiring and encouraging move from the administration. It makes me proud.
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