Sotomayor Confirmation Makes Supreme Court Most Ethnically Diverse in History (275 hits)

Black Issues Appear Safe from Legal Attack

(Taylor Media Services) When the Senate voted last Thursday to confirm President Obama's nomination of Puerto Rican American Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, it made "diversity history." Not only does the 55-year-old Sotomayor become the first Hispanic and only the third woman to sit on the high court, her swearing in on Saturday makes the highest court in the nation the most ethnically diverse it has been in American history.

There are now seven whites, one Black and one Hispanic on the Supreme Court. President Obama noted the significance of the occasion by issuing a statement which said in part that the nation was "breaking yet another barrier and moving us yet another step closer to a more perfect union." Led by the NAACP, Sotomayor's confirmation was welcomed by virtually all of the nation's major civil rights organizations.

However, Sotomayor's confirmation, largely along party lines, does not change the ideological make-up of the Supreme Court. She is replacing another fairly liberal Justice David Souter who retired in June. Thus, the new court, which meets for another term the first Monday in October, will be composed of four liberals, four conservatives and one moderate who tends to vote more often with the conservatives than with the liberals.

Nevertheless, most legal issues of greatest concern to African Americans are probably safe from right-wing legal attack for the time being. Issues ranging from major civil rights laws to a woman's right to an abortion are not likely to be restricted by the court which convenes in October.

http://www.freewebs.com/blacknewsjournal/ Posted By: Jen Fad
Tuesday, August 11th 2009 at 10:28AM
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