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Only in America
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Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination is an immense moment of pride for the Latino community—and a story that would not have been possible in any other country, Irasema Garza writes.
Plus, more Daily Beast contributors react to Sotomayor's nomination.
I think it is really important that we continue to reiterate that Sonia Sotomayor is a brilliant jurist with vast legal and judicial experience: Her credentials are untouchable. Her personal story of extraordinary success achieved through hard work, intellectual prowess, and the support of her close-knit family is a uniquely American story.
There is no way of knowing how she’s going to rule once she’s on the court, but she brings a life experience that’s very different from that of any justice on the court today, coming as she does from humble beginnings. We are all products of our own life experiences. Does that life experience make a difference in how people view the world? Absolutely.
Here’s a woman whose life and accomplishments prove that only in the United States of America is her story possible. Only in the USA can you have a person of such humble beginnings rise to this level. This is an enormously important affirmation for girls. She’s already a role model to girls, particularly to girls in the Latino community and girls growing up in barrios around the United States.
Her nomination is also an immense moment of pride for the Latino community. It’s a validation in this country that all things are possible. I can tell you that as a Latina, this is a historic moment for our community.
Judge Sotomayor has an understanding of how the law the works and impacts ordinary Americans. Does it make a difference to women and girls? Absolutely. Does diversity matter? Absolutely. But all that has to be prefaced with the fact that she is an absolutely brilliant jurist.
Xtra Insight: More Daily Beast contributors react to Sotomayor's nomination.
Irasema Garza is president of Legal Momentum, formerly the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, the nation’s oldest legal defense and education fund dedicated to advancing the rights of all women and girls.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
You're a seriously deluded if you believe that Sotomayor is a "brilliant jurist". The reality is that she's widely considered (by people who actually read her decisions and follow the Second Circuit) to be a rather mediocre jurist with a manifest inability to process syllogistic reasoning.
Moreover the notion that her personal story is an "only in America" story is jingoism of the worse kind, patently ignorant and bordering on offensive. Nearly every western nation can boast of people of "humble origins" being elevated to positions of power!
Funny how everybody seems to forget the amazing rise of Clarence Thomas from his poor background to Supreme Justice. His credentials and resume were excellent, however he became a target of the vicious Left and their agenda against Conservatives. I don't hear any praise being heaped upon him and how he overcame so many outrageous insults.
Right on!
"Here's a woman whose life and accomplishments prove that only in the United States of America is her story possible. Only in the USA can you have a person of such humble beginnings rise to this level." Oh, for goodness sake. People from humble beginnings can make it to the top of their in other countries too. Eg. my country, Canada. Why "only" the USA? Gee, get out much?
This is probably as historic as Judge Benjamin Cardozo's confirmation to the Supreme Court. The Hispanic community must have swelled with pride as the jurist of Portuguese descent became the fisrt Hispanic on the Supreme Court.
Thank you.
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