Blog # 28

According to the article, Sonia Sotomayor was under the harshest criticism than any other possible nominee. Within the article, Sotomayor is portrayed to be temperamental, vain and too stupid to serve on the Supreme Court. This is problematic because the writer of the article that portrayed Sotomayor as these things took peoples comments and turned them around. He took quotes from statements and only used parts of them to prove his opinion on her. Her credibility was also questioned based on her gender, race, and religion. Many thought that she would not be capable of seeing things clearly because her experience as a Hispanic woman. She was also criticized for being raised Catholic. This is problematic because the male nominee’s were not criticized in this manner and their upbringing was not dissected the way her upbringing was.

For example Sonia Sotomayor graduated from two prestigious schools. This was never mentioned within the article that was questioning her credibility. Obviously to make it through law school an individual has to be smart and capable, so the accusation about her being too dumb to sever as a Supreme Court justice was not relevant. Additionally, the other nominees were not questioned about their credibility, it was just understood that if they were nominated then they were obviously qualified to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Their religion or their gender was never an issue it was only for Sonia Sotomayor. I was glad to read that others stepped up and criticized the writer of that article. Others criticized his credibility and his sources which hopefully made him think twice about his false accusations of Sotomayor. However, even after this writer was criticized the questioning of Sotomayors credibility had already begun and people had begun forming their opinions of her based on false accusations. The problem is many people do not like change or they are not comfortable with change and by her being the first Hispanic to serve as a Supreme Court Justice and she is only the third female Justice it brings much change to our justice system.