ERIC Number: EJ869080
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Sep-17
Pages: 2
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1557-5411
EISSN: N/A
Passing Judgment
Balaji, Murali
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, v26 n16 p12-13 Sep 2009
From the time President Barack Obama introduced Sonia Sotomayor as his U.S. Supreme Court nominee to the day of her confirmation as an associate justice, conservative criticism of her nomination remained vocal and unrelenting. While some conservatives focused on Sotomayor's positions on gun rights and abortion, many seemed fixated with her comments regarding race and ethnicity. Their opposition, which continued up to the moment of the 68-31 Senate vote last month, appeared to be based on the notion that her ethnic background precluded her from judicial objectivity. This might have been a typical conservative outcry to a left-of-center court nominee, but many scholars say the fight over Sotomayor is indicative of a larger struggle over the politics of identity. They say the Sotomayor nomination, on the heels of the election of the country's first Black president, appears to be an attempt by White conservatives to control the discourse on race and ethnicity. Dr. Miguel Centellas, who teaches political science at the University of Mississippi, says the ugliness of the Sotomayor nomination and confirmation process indicates that the country has a long way to go with how it deals with race and ethnicity, particularly in political discourse.
Descriptors: Ethnicity, Political Science, Politics, Presidents, Political Attitudes, Whites, Racial Attitudes, Judges, Racial Relations
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A