Sotomayor & "Fidelity To The Law"

TAMPA, FL-One of the quotes that has been played over and over again from the Sotomayor hearings that took place last week was her response to the question of her judicial philosophy, "fidelity to the law". If that was all there was to being a judge, we could just load up a sophisticated computer with some advance artificial intelligence software and then just feed the elements of our judicial cases to it for a ruling.

But we don't use computers to issue rulings. We have human beings which means that laws must be interpreted through human beings. And it is at this point that the variable of experience can come into play. Many on the right were up in arms about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latino woman" comment and she apologized for offending anyone but it is that Latino experience that Judge Sotomayor will be bringing to the bench.

Can we honestly say that judicial rulings in the Jim Crow south were not influenced by racial oppression of the human beings living in the south at that time? The statue of Justice might be blind that's on our courthouses but the best we human beings can do is strive to be objective but it is flavored by who we are, where we grew up and the experiences we've had in this life.

If the law were so black and white (no racial pun intended), all of the opinions of the Supreme Court would be unanimous. If the law were so easily interpreted, there would be no dissents. But it is our experiences that shape our worldview and that worldview effects the way in which we experience the world. How else can one section of the population see that Jeremiah Wright is an anti-US racist and another section of the population see him as prophetic minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ? How else can one are of the judiciary see abortion as an affront to human life and another area see it as a right that can be exercised even in the third trimester?

In the recent Surpreme Court ruling about strip searchings in our schools, I appreciated Justice Ginsbergs comments to the effect that many men might not appreciate how degrading and humiliating it is for a teenage girl to be strip searched. That was spoke through the lense of one who was a teenage girl and who understood all of the complexities that go with it. Not as a justice that was like Joe Friday, "Just the facts ma'am."

The thing that has disappointed me about these hearings for the new justices to the Supreme Court is that nothing is really communicated about who the justice is and what truly is their judicial philosophy. I remember one of the first hearing that I watched when Justice Antonin Scalia was before the Senate and how interesting it was to hear detailed discussions about the law and its nuances.

You would think that with 17 years on the federal bench that there would have been much to talk about with Judge Sotomayor about the way in which she comes to conclusions in her legal renderings. Not to find amunition to shoot her down or words that would lock her into how future cases would be decided. But just an engaging discussion with the judge and the committee that will enlighten the citizenry. Those days seem to be gone in this age of "avoiding meldown" (as Senator Graham put it) rather than digging deeper.