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Sotomayor Repeatedly Referenced 'Wise Woman' in Speeches
Congressional Quarterly ^ | June 4, 2009 | Seth Stern

Posted on 06/05/2009 2:04:14 AM PDT by FTJM

Sotomayor Repeatedly Referenced 'Wise Woman' in Speeches

By Seth Stern | June 4, 2009 7:32 PM

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor delivered multiple speeches between 1994 and 2003 in which she suggested "a wise Latina woman" or "wise woman" judge might "reach a better conclusion" than a male judge.

Those speeches, released Thursday as part of Sotomayor's responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee's questionnaire, (to see Sotomayor's responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee click here and here) suggest her widely quoted 2001 speech in which she indicated a "wise Latina" judge might make a better decision was far from a single isolated instance.

A draft version of a October 2003 speech Sotomayor delivered at Seton Hall University stated, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion." That is identical to her October 2001 remarks at the University of California, Berkeley that have become the subject of intense criticism by Republican senators and prompted conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh to label her "racist."

In addition, Sotomayor delivered a series of earlier speeches in which she said "a wise woman" would reach a better decision. She delivered the first of those speeches in Puerto Rico in 1994 and then before the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York in April 1999.

The summary descriptions of speeches Sotomayor provided indicated she delivered remarks similar to the 1994 speech on three other occasions in 1999 and 2000 during two addresses at Yale and one at the City University of New York School of Law.

Her repeated use of the phrases "wise Latina woman" and "wise woman" would appear to undermine the Obama administration's assertions that the statement was simply a poor choice of words. After details of the 1994 speech circulated before the questionnaire's release, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, emerged from his private meeting with Sotomayor and expressed new concerns about the nominee's "identity politics."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: judge; sotomayor; supremecourt
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To: FTJM
Fools!

Those not grovelling in full support of wise latina Sotomayor are ignorant racist bigoted chauvinistic homophobes. I know this because the party of the dims has so stated, and they never lie!!!!!!

21 posted on 06/05/2009 5:17:03 AM PDT by LRS (Just contracts; just laws; just a constitution...)
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To: FTJM

The dingbat needs to be defeated.


22 posted on 06/05/2009 6:59:42 AM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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