In the second day of confirmation hearings, Judge Sonia Sotomayor addressed the controversy surrounding her now-infamous “wise Latina” remarks.
“Never have any words I have spoken or written gotten so much attention…The words I spoke have created a misunderstanding,” she said during opening questions from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy, who has praised Sotomayor’s qualifications as “outstanding,” gave the judge an opportunity for clarification on the main Republican line of attack. “I was trying to inspire [young Latinos] to believe their life experiences would enrich the legal system,” she said.
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The original comment that has drawn so much conservative ire was repeated in almost exact form during multiple speeches over Sotomayor’s career: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion.”
Republicans and conservative talking heads have seized on Sotomayor’s past comments as their main talking point for opposition, Newt Gingrich even going so far as to call her a racist (which he later walked back).
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), another member of the commitee, said in his opening statements on Monday that Sotomayor’s statements were troubling to him. Under questioning from Sessions on Tuesday morning, she also acknowledged that while life experiences influence judges, “personal biases” must not affect the outcome of cases.
