Our Supreme Court Needs More than just a Hispanic Representative!
July 16th 2009 15:58
Somewhat luckily, President Obama gets the opportunity to pick a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He has chosen Puerto Rican born Sonia Sotomayor, who has created a buzz on capitol hill. With the President's selection of Ms. Sotomayor, the Supreme Court is looking at its first Hispanic justice to sit on the bench. She's also only the 3rd woman to sit on the bench behind Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But, as lovely as this all sounds, it's still pretty sad that since its creation in 1789, Ms. Sotomayor will be the FIRST Hispanic and still only the THIRD woman to ever sit on the bench! Now, here we are in 2009, 210 years later, and the best this country can do to have a representative of women and for minorities is still under the count of 10? That's beyond ridiculous, beyond reason, and kind of silly.
We now have an African American President, we have African American and Hispanic congressmen and senators and governors, even mayors, but this country is still only on its 3rd female justice and 1st Hispanic. For some reason, justice in this country seems to be hinged on the idea that it must be heard before, at the highest level, by only old and decrepit White Catholic men. Even Jews have been shamefully misrepresented compared to White Catholics. And to add to this, the conservative ideology is feeling ultimately threatened by this newest addition because they feel her ethnicity will only add more problems to her judgment skills, which are considered too liberal as they stand in her judicial history up to this point anyways. The only things in common that she shares with the existing justices is the fact that she's a Catholic (minus Ginsburg, Breyer, and Stevens) and that she graduated from ivy league schools.
The Supreme Court needs a complete overhaul, in my opinion, and I'm sure if the country were polled, others would agree. First off, this whole rule of life tenure is outdated and unnecessary. As many qualified judges throughout this country that exist, I think we could do with maybe changing the tenure to 5-10 years instead. Secondly, there should be equal male to female representation, hopefully this doesn't require an explanation as to why it makes sense. Thirdly, can we get around the Catholicism, not because of any personal prejudice I may have with it, but simply because of the hot topics of abortion and gay rights. These two topics ALONE, should be reason enough to spread the religious affiliations across the board and not just to one of the most rigid and openly derisive towards abortion and homosexuality. Although, a justice's personal and religious beliefs should not in any way sway their decisions according to the law, but lets be realistic, they are still only human of course!
And lastly, would it hurt to have more diversity than just old and White, or old and male, or old and female? I mean really, a 40 something can't make the same decisions as an 80 something justice? Or how about even an Asian or Indian or Muslim (ooh, that might be pushing it for the ultra conservatives)? I guess I'm asking too much to have our judicial system's highest authority to resemble some of the every day faces we seen in society, heck, if I can't get that on a jury of my peers, then yeah, I am just venting wishful thinking. Too bad our democracy doesn't spread further in to the realms of the Supreme Court Justice picks, then maybe things could be shaken up a bit. But since it doesn't and we're stuck with whatever choices are made for us, I guess Ms. Sotomayor is not too bad of a choice. It could be worse, like Sara Palin instead!
The Supreme Court needs a complete overhaul, in my opinion, and I'm sure if the country were polled, others would agree. First off, this whole rule of life tenure is outdated and unnecessary. As many qualified judges throughout this country that exist, I think we could do with maybe changing the tenure to 5-10 years instead. Secondly, there should be equal male to female representation, hopefully this doesn't require an explanation as to why it makes sense. Thirdly, can we get around the Catholicism, not because of any personal prejudice I may have with it, but simply because of the hot topics of abortion and gay rights. These two topics ALONE, should be reason enough to spread the religious affiliations across the board and not just to one of the most rigid and openly derisive towards abortion and homosexuality. Although, a justice's personal and religious beliefs should not in any way sway their decisions according to the law, but lets be realistic, they are still only human of course!
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