Typical Professional Victim.
Posted on 05/26/2009 2:03:38 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's first pick for the Supreme Court, got some real-world experience fighting discrimination before she ever heard a case as a judge.
As a law student at Yale, she turned down a high-profile job with the powerful Washington law firm Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge to protest questions during the recruitment process about her Hispanic heritage, according to a report in The Washington Post from 1978. The daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, Judge Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic to serve on the high court if confirmed.
A student-faculty tribunal found that during a recruitment dinner one of the Washington firm's lawyers discriminated against her by asking whether she had been "culturally deprived" by her heritage.
Mr. Obama introduced Judge Sotomayor as a candidate with the "common touch" and "experience" he is seeking for the nation's highest court but did not mention the 1978 incident. Ms. Sotomayor has served on the U.S Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit since 1998.
According to the contemporary news account of the tribunal's findings, a Shaw, Pittman lawyer asked Judge Sotomayor: "'Do law firms do a disservice by hiring minority students who the firms know do not have the necessary credentials and will then fire in three to four years? Would [you] have been admitted to the law school if [you] were not a Puerto Rican? [Were you] culturally deprived?"
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com:80 ...
Why wouldn’t you just answer the question? I came from a modest background (I was the first in my family to get a college degree and my husband paid for most of it, while also supporting a young family and getting his own degree and MBA). If someone asked me a question like that I would answer it, but then, I don’t go around trying to find things to be insulted about. Perhaps I’m missing the boat!
And then she subsequently said her Hispanic heritage gave her a better viewpoint on the impact of the law than white males.
Can't have it both ways, hon...
Oh, that's right ... you're a liberal. Two-faced is your nature.
Other than the fact that she’s got a law degree I think maybe I have a broader life experience than she does. Perhaps I should write to Obama and nominate myself! (and actually, in the name of diversity, shouldn’t we have some Supreme Court judges who DO NOT have education in the field of law? I mean, it gives me a way fresher perspective!)
Hillary?
“Everybody faces discrimination of one kind or another.”
She thinks she had it tough, try being a conservative and finding a TV show or a movie you can watch...
You mean Kinky Spalding.
I don’t look for things to be insulted about and am for the most part thick skinned. But there is something about that question
that rubbed me the wrong way.
Just what we need. Someone with a huge chip on her shoulder to sit on the Supreme Court.
As to her apparent judicial philosophy, she and I part ways. Whatever discrimination she has suffered, and however she has come by her empathy, I disagree with her racist comments about being a Latina and hence better able to render judicial decisions. I also find very troubling her remarks about the judiciary being a place for setting policy. Life is full of complexity, but we have a personal and professional responsibility to rise above individual hurts and do our work objectively.
These law firm questions are what she is claiming to be discrimination?
Wow, she’s really had it bad. I wonder how she ever got over that ordeal.
Now, how does she feel about whitey being passed over to give preference for her favorite groups?
And will any Republican Senator have the backbone to ask her that question?
Typical Professional Victim.
From the stories I’ve heard....LAW firms have the WORST MANAGEMENT, and especially, probably during the time frame in which she was trying to gain employment.....that said....sheesh....what a wimp. And, I’m a woman.
So, let me get this straight.....they discriminated against her but offered her the job anyway? She should be more specific about the “inappropriate” questions about her ethnicity. Don’t all employers ask about race/ethnicity on employment forms to collect stats for Afirmative Action?
‘Sounds like it just firmed her racism.
Go any big law firm’s website and almost without exception, you’ll see a prominently positioned “Diversity” tab. Click on it and read them patting themselves on the back that they are so “inclusive” and create or participate in all these minority or female “initiatives” Or even more self-congratulatory, how they fund race-based scholarships.
Oh, poor baby. She TURNED DOWN the prestigious job because she didn’t like the questions. Most of us female lawyers didn’t even get the jobs. Her experience is hardly discrimination.
I’m disgusted she’s pulling the discrimination card. She’s had every opportunity, or she wouldn’t be where she is. Many of us from the same era got junky jobs and made do. We had lower pay and had to put up with dirty old men. And we shut up and did our jobs because we were happy to have them. I’m not crying for her “poor, poor” situation.
“The daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants,...”
Puerto Ricans are not immigrants. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and its people are American citizens.
It is client-driven (or it started out that way). The story is that 10-15 years ago, big clients started demanding to see the diversity numbers (how many women partners? how many black partners? how many black women partners? etc.). Those numbers were used by clients as part of their choice of law firm decisions. Law firms have responded accordingly with their diversity initiatives. A cost of doing (or getting) business.
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