by Roger D. Bernier

Created on: May 31, 2009   Last Updated: June 01, 2009

For more than five centuries, "Lady Justice" has been recognized the world over as the symbol of judicial impartiality, but the recent nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court threatens to remove the famous statue's blindfold forever. President Obama's choice of Sotomayor seems to be another of his flawed appointments that should be added to the growing list of those individuals who were either not properly vetted, such as former Senator Tom Dashle, whose tax problems led to the withdrawal of his nomination as Health and Human Services Secretary, or those whose infractions were blatantly ignored, as in the case of tax-cheat, Timothy Geithner, now heading up the IRS and the Treasury.

In a public apology, in an interview Friday with NBC's Brian Williams, the President said that Judge Sotomayor used a "poor choice of words" when in a 2001 interview at Berkeley, she responded to the Sandra Day O'Connor quote "a wise old man and a wise old woman would reach the same conclusion when deciding case". Sotomayor put her own spin on the former Justice's famous quote by saying, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

On the contrary, I believe Judge Sotomayor made an excellent choice of words. Not because they are acceptable-they certainly are not; but rather because they accurately represent how she feels about racial equality. To determine if her statement is racist, reverse the subjects and see how you feel after re-reading her quote: "I would hope that a wise white male with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina female who hasn't lived that life." Any white male nominee who made a statement like that would have already withdrawn his name from nomination.

If this was an isolated quote or incident, one may be able to accept the President's glossing over of her so-called "poor choice of words"; however Sotomayor has repeatedly shown that to her, racial preference trumps fairness. In the well-publicized Ricci vs. DeStefano case, eighteen white New Haven, Connecticut firefighters' tests were discarded and their promotions denied because no African-Americans passed the test. Frank Ricci, a 34-year old dyslexic firefighter who worked extra-hard to pass the test, subsequently brought a reverse-discrimination case against the city. When Judge Sotomayor, sitting on

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