President Obama tapped Sonia Sotomayor as his choice to succeed Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. If elected, she will be the first Hispanic Justice to serve. Empathy, it’s a novel concept and one that’s causing quite a battle for President Obama in his first judicial selection.  Sonia Sotomayor has been quoted as saying, “our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions” and “I would hope a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a White male who hasn’t lived that life.”
President Barack Obama named Federal Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice calling her “an inspiring woman” with both the intellect and compassion to interpret the Constitution wisely.  The selection of Sotomayor as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice did not get lost on either Obama or Sotomayor as they both noted the historic nature of the appointment. President Obama openly stated that a Hispanic on the court would mark another step toward the goal of “equal justice under law.”

Other Concerns
One case that is giving conservatives of the court, some degree of concern is Ricci v. DeStefano.  The case has been described as an “explosive” one involving affirmative action in the New Haven Fire Department. A panel including Sotomayor ruled against the firefighters in a perfunctory unpublished opinion.
Critics have argued that the case was dismissed with less than one clear paragraph regarding the merits of the case. In 2003, Frank Ricci, a White New Haven, Connecticut fireman scored well on the test which the fire department administered to determine promotions to such positions as lieutenant and captain. Black firefighters who scored much lower on that test, claimed racial bias and ask that the results be discarded in lieu of other criteria for selection.
In response, Ricci and 17 fellow firefighters (16 Whites and one Hispanic) filed a federal civil rights lawsuit which was argued before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, charging reverse discrimination.  The plaintiffs contended that they had been wrongfully denied promotions they deserved. The judicial panel, which included Sotomayor, upheld New Haven’s decision to dismiss the test results. The case will likely be heard by the Supreme Court.

Favoritism?
Although most American agree with the Sotomayor selection and conservatives have not been able to wage a large enough battle or a controversial enough “sound bite” to launch a full attack, there are still some that are willing to reframe the call for empathy and compassion to the “bench” as a call for “favoritism.”  
After all, in the course of “human frailty”, change is what we most fear.  The very thought that within the halls of justice, in the bastions of legal thought, there might coexist the notion, or could we dare imagine, the balance of “empathy and compassion with the ideals of justice.”
                                        Carmen