About us Login Get email updates
County Fair
Print

Buchanan: "Sotomayor is a quota queen" who believes "equal justice takes a back seat to tribal justice"

June 02, 2009 6:18 am ET by Media Matters staff

From Buchanan's June 2 syndicated column:

Like Lani Guinier, the Clinton appointee rejected for reverse racism, Sonia Sotomayor is a quota queen. She believes in, preaches and practices race-based justice. Her burying the appeal of the white New Haven firefighters, who were denied promotions they had won in competitive exams, was a no-brainer for her.

In her world, equal justice takes a back seat to tribal justice.

Now, people often come out to vote for one of their own. Catholics for JFK, evangelicals for Mike Huckabee, women for Hillary Clinton, Mormons for Mitt Romney, Jews for Joe Lieberman and African-Americans for Barack Obama. That is political reality and an exercise of political freedom.

But tribal justice is un-American.

In the 1950s and 1960s, this country reached consensus that denying black men and women the equal opportunity to advance and succeed must come to an end. Discrimination based on race, color or ethnicity, we agreed, was wrong.

Sotomayor, however, has an exception to the no-discrimination rule. She believes in no discrimination, unless done to white males and to benefit people like her.

How can any Republican senator vote to elevate to the Supreme Court a judge who, all her life, has believed in, preached and practiced race discrimination against white males, without endorsing the Obama-Sotomayor view that diversity trumps equal justice, and race-based justice should have its own seat on the high court?

Down the path Sotomayor would take us lies an America where Hispanic justices rule for Hispanics, black judges rule for blacks and white judges rule for white folks.

[...]

But why should the white working and middle class stay with the GOP? Its presidents exported their jobs to Mexico, China and Asia, and threw open America's doors to tens of millions, legal and illegal, from the Third World, who have swamped their cities and towns. If the GOP will not end race-based affirmative action, which threatens the futures of their children, why vote for the GOP?

Why should white folks vote for anyone who says, "We are against race discrimination, unless it is discrimination against you"?

Obama would not have selected Sotomayor if he did not share her convictions. And there is nothing in his writings or career to hint at disagreement. Thus it comes down to the senators, especially the Republicans. A vote for Sonia Sotomayor is a vote to affirm that race-based justice deserves its own seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

But if that happens, it will not only be the race consciousness of Hispanics that will be on the rise in the good old U.S.A.

Supreme Court litigator Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog writes of Sotomayor and race-related cases:

In sum, in an eleven-year career on the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor has participated in roughly 100 panel decisions involving questions of race and has disagreed with her colleagues in those cases (a fair measure of whether she is an outlier) a total of 4 times. Only one case (Gant) in that entire eleven years actually involved the question whether race discrimination may have occurred. (In another case (Pappas) she dissented to favor a white bigot.) She participated in two other panels rejecting district court rulings agreeing with race-based jury-selection claims. Given that record, it seems absurd to say that Judge Sotomayor allows race to infect her decisionmaking.

Previously:

Buchanan says Sotomayor's purported discrimination against "white males" similar to "what was done in the South"

During "white males" rant, Buchanan calls Sotomayor "that woman"; Shrum calls on him to apologize

Buchanan: "lightweight" Sotomayor "an anti-white, liberal judicial activist"

Buchanan claims that "it appears" that Sotomayor "believe[s] in reverse discrimination against white males"

Buchanan declares Sotomayor an "affirmative action pick"

Expand All Expand 1st Level Collapse All Add Comment
    • Author by mk3872 (June 02, 2009 7:33 am ET)
         
      MSNBC will continue to embarass itself if it keeps bringing this old wash-up bigot back onto its shows to spew this sort of overheated hatread as "commentary".
      Report Abuse
    • Author by rwmacdonald2091 (June 02, 2009 7:59 am ET)
         
      Buchanan should follow Tucker over to Fox, at least that way we can quarantine all the right wing crackpots in one place!

      I'm sure Fox would make room for one more brain dead nutcase.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by nerzog (June 02, 2009 9:01 am ET)
      1  
      Pat has managed to soften his image somewhat over the years... he's become the cuddly deranged uncle who sits in the corner and blurts out asinine comments from time to time.

      Lest we forget, however, I believe it was Pat who declared a "Culture War" when he ran for President many years ago. Even though he lost, the Culture War concept was embraced by the Troglodyte Wing of the Republican party, and is still with us.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by jonwisby (June 02, 2009 9:35 am ET)
         
      From his commentary one would have to assume Buchanan hasn't read the case law on the Ricci case or examined the history of Ms. Sotomayor's opinions.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by JimInTheBay (June 02, 2009 10:28 am ET)
         
      If the justices are allowed no latitude with their decisions wouldnt we be as well served by a computer ?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by nerzog (June 02, 2009 10:36 am ET)
           
        That's the point that is conveniently lost in all the Media Bobblehead discussions... they're letting the Republicans get away with describing the job of a Supreme Court Justice as simply "Applying the Rule of Law".

        In the real world, it's not that simple, especially when interpreting and applying our Constitution.

        Despite what the Troglodytes try to tell us, the language of the Constitution is not always precise, nor is the original intent of the framers. There is no way they could have foreseen, every possible scenario that would come up, so many concepts in the Constitution are broad and rather vague.

        If it were so simple, there would be many more unanimous decisions coming down from the Court. As it is, these highly educated and supposedly wise people often disagree on how the Law should be applied.

        Report Abuse
    • Author by terrapin53 (June 02, 2009 11:53 am ET)
         
      This ia a GREAT pick by Obama. It has to be since all the conservative pundits can't stand her. Not a better endorsement than having Buchanan, Hannity, Limbaugh, Rove, and all the rest of those whackos speak against her.
      Report Abuse