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Hearings for Judge Sotomayor Commence: Which Way Forward for the GOP and Latino Voters?

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Today
kicks of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Judge Sonia
Sotomayor. In question is whether Sotomayor has what it takes to become
the 111th Supreme Court Justice of the United States, as well as the
first Hispanic and third female to serve in the nation’s highest court
of law. Stay tuned to watch it live right here:

 

 

As we noted last month:

In case you missed it, the race-based attacks on Presiden’t Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, got very, very ugly.

Media Matters has chronicled the attacks from their news watch-dog perspective here. The group continues to point out the failure of the reporting on these attacks to put Sotomayor’s comments in context.
She has specifically been attacked for comments made in 2001 that her
experience as a “wise Latina” would give her valuable experience as a
judge. According to Media Matters:

When Sotomayor made the “wise
Latina” comment,
she was specifically discussing
the importance of judicial diversity in determining “race and sex discrimination
cases.” Additionally, conservatives, including Justices Clarence Thomas and
Samuel Alito, have each acknowledged the significant impact their
background and personal experiences have had on their judicial
thinking.