Ben Bratman: In Defense of ‘Wise Latina’ Remark
Posted by Keith Kamisugi | Filed under Opinion
Ben Bratman, Associate Professor of Legal Writing at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, explained in a piece published Friday why Judge Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comment was legitimate:
As Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings have progressed, senators and the media have focused heavily on one much-hyped comment. Famously, Sotomayor said that she hopes that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
The comment reflects Sotomayor’s apparent belief that a judge’s ethnic background, gender, and life experiences affect—and can even enhance—her decision-making. In the political realm, Sotomayor’s comment has received nary an endorsement, and has in fact elicited harsh criticism from Republicans as a moniker of identity politics. Meanwhile, Democrats in the Senate and President Obama have distanced themselves from the comment, suggesting the judge made a poor choice of words.
Thinking about Sotomayor’s remark from a legal perspective, however, I am not troubled by it. (Nor do I find it to be merely a “rhetorical flourish,” as Judge Sotomayor herself characterized it at the hearings.) Rather, I am intrigued by it – as I will explain.
I teach a law school course on a subject—employment discrimination—in which gender and ethnicity matter, and in which the unique perspectives of women and of Latinas (as well as of African Americans, Asian Americans, etc.) matter. It is a subject in which I encounter and teach federal appeals court decisions by white judges and male judges who are doing their best to adopt the perspective of an employee who is a woman and/or a member of an ethnic minority.
These cases—concerning alleged harassment in the workplace because of sex, race, or national origin—illustrate the relevance and importance of Sotomayor’s remark. They also counsel against superficial rejection of that remark on the grounds that personal experiences categorically can never play a role in judging.
Tags: ben bratman, wise latina
