by Barbara Stanley

Created on: May 29, 2009   Last Updated: June 01, 2009

To be a Supreme Court Justice, requires someone capable of handling an enormous responsibility. Whoever serves, serves for life. The appointment of a new Supreme Court Justice is carefully vetted for this reason. Both major political parties desire, at a minimum, that the balance of conservative and liberal Judges be equal. They hope that the scales can be tipped in their favor by having the majority of Judges holding their views on the laws. Most people believe that the vetting process is all about left or right leaning tendencies on interpreting the laws. There is another issue that must be consider because, unfortunately, it is a factor in how a Justice might vote. Gender does matter when a Supreme Court Justice votes on a rule of law.

Gender does play a part in how an individual views the world in general. We know that there is a discernable difference in the perspective of men and women. Although we would hope that those serving on the Supreme Court would put aside their personal feelings when interpreting the law, we know this is not the case. In fact, this became apparent to me for the first time through news accounts of the current female nominee's, MS Sotomayor, comments regarding the fact that she was female and a Latino. Prior to this, I had believed that Justices voted according to their interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America. If personal beliefs are to be a factor in how they vote, then gender becomes a very important issue.

I now believe gender matters, simply because there should be a balance of males and females serving on the Supreme Court. I find it sad that our laws must be constantly interpreted by any group of people. I find the laws, as stated in the Constitution, are without ambiguity, needing no further interpretation. If we, as citizens of the United States, feel that our laws are unclear and in need of clarification, we should revise the constitution, making sure no law is open to different interpretations. The revised Constitution could then be voted on by all those registered to vote.

When considering the legality of abortion, homosexual marriages, rights afforded to individuals based on their sexual preferences and rights that Christians are losing, how a male would feel about these issues could be vastly different from a female point of view. Of course, each of us is looking for someone to represent our own views on these issues and more. It is evident that all people will not be represented in our Supreme Court system. With so many factors to be considered, i.e., personal feelings on laws concerning life and death issues, religion, adoption and penal laws; we can only hope that there will be someone serving, who will fight for true justice for all.

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