by Ania Kotowski

Created on: May 20, 2009

Gender should absolutely NOT be a determining factor in choosing a Supreme Court nominee.

Although the Supreme Court should be representative of the population as a whole, which right now it is not, since there is only one female Justice, using 'determining factors' such as gender would be abusing one of America's "favorite" operations - Affirmative Action.

Though I won't deny that the United States has a history filled with discrimination against all types of minorities (since it is written all over the place in history books), affirmative action was one of the worst things to ever happen to the United States. Even though it is not supposed to be used anymore, affirmative action is still commonly seen primarily in the workplace and in education.

What affirmative action does is basically reverse discrimination. When choosing a Supreme Court nominee, President Obama should look for THE most qualified person for the job, not the most qualified woman for the job. If the most qualified person happens to be either a man or a woman, so be it. Each gender had an equally likely chance of being nominated. On the other hand, if the president chose to look at only qualified females... well, what about all the qualified men out there? There could be a more qualified man for the job, but he won't get it because of the determining factor.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has probably said during this process of looking for a nominee that she would enjoy the company of another woman. People across America would agree with her, because why should there only be ONE woman on a panel of NINE Justices that decide on the United States' most demanding cases?

Currently, if Americans were given the chance to choose between a male and female nominee who are equally qualified, have the same standing on practically every major issue, the majority would choose the female because of affirmative action. Women have been discriminated before, so they need retribution now. But that's not right. What if there are miniscule differences between the two, which decide that the male is in fact just slightly more qualified? Well, then he should get the job.

President Obama and the people of the United States should stop worrying about whether they're discriminating, whether they're being politically correct, etc. The Supreme Court nominee should be the most qualified person for the job, and gender should definitely not be a determining factor.

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