How inspiring - Common Sense

I am very excited about the nomination of Judge Sotomayor. Not because she is a woman, not because she is a minority, and not because she is a liberal (or Conservative).

No, I am thrilled because while I like the experiences she brings to the bench, the most important characteristic is she appears to have is COMMON SENSE. She does not rule by party line, gender or ethnicity. There was piece in the Washington Post about her record and the cases they examined. The conclusion was "Taken together, the cases defy depictions of her record as falling neatly into either a liberal or conservative category".

I got into a discussion with my niece about Judge Sotomayor. She feels the judge is racist and pointed to the well publicized speech at Berkeley. I understood that Judge Sotomayor delivered that speech in a class ABOUT Diversity - so of course she would discuss ethnicity.

However, according to the Washington post , "In a less-publicized 2001 interview, Sotomayor said she tries to separate her Puerto Rican heritage from her judging. "It is very important when you judge to recognize that you have to stay impartial," she said in a video for a program on Latinos and the law. "I have to unhook myself from my emotional responses and try to stay within my unemotional objective persona. That process can be very weighty at times."

Wow, a well qualified candidate that uses common sense, the law, and the individual facts when deciding a case instead of 'sticking with party lines."

I think we need her on the bench.