Americans for a Pluralistic US Supreme Court: Justice Sotomayor's Confirmation Leaves Court 66% White Male

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Justice Sotomayor's Confirmation Leaves Court 66% White Male

The first goal of this blog has been achieved with the Senate confirmation today of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The Washington Post reports today,

Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation Thursday afternoon as the nation's 111th Supreme Court justice and the first Hispanic on the court, a historic moment for the nation's fastest-growing minority group.

However, this blog, as it's name reflects, has ongoing relevance because there are still only two women among two women among nine justices (22%) and only one nominally Black man, (Justice I-Hate-Black-People Thomas). And so, in a country with a white male population of perhaps 30%, we nonetheless have a US Supreme Court that is 66% white male. That's a vestige of American apartheid, during which time neither women nor Blacks could vote at all.

Going forward, there will be pressure on President Obama to nominate a white man to the US Supreme Court, in order to prove that, in all fairness. Obama isn't against white men. What Obama should remember instead is that white men are still represented on the Court more than twice as often as they appear in the nation's population. Any white male appointment at this time would only magnify the injustices of the past.

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Contact: francislholland@yahoo.com
Sotomayor, with more than six years of district court and more than 10 years of appeals court experience, goes before the committee with more years of total experience in the federal courts than any Supreme Court justice since . . .? Ah, you guessed it: since the legendary Justice Horace Harmon Lurton, who served for 17 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit before going to the high court in 1910. -- WaPost
Atty. Francis L. Holland
in the Washington Post:
"Francis L. Holland, one of the vocal black bloggers, sent e-mails to DNC officials asking that 15 black-operated blogs be added to the State Corps. "There is nothing 'Democratic' about an all-white Democratic National Convention floor blogging corps," he wrote in an e-mail. Holland is also asking for the inclusion of 15 Latino-operated blogs."
Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism:
In 2008, the Democratic "party came under fire from African American bloggers. Francis L. Holland, of the Afrosphere Action Coalition, complained to Black Enterprise magazine that black blogs only made up slightly more than 7% of the bloggers credentialed for the convention."
Atty. Francis L. Holland Blog in Dallas Morning News:
“November’s voter turnout depends on August’s blogger outreach,” said Mr. Holland, a member of a national and international black bloggers’ coalition called “The AfroSpear.” “Blogs address constituencies, and it simply is not possible for blogs that are all-white to effectively reach diverse Democratic constituencies.”
Atty. Francis L. Holland Blog in Black Enterprise Magazine:
"Of the blogs covering the convention, black blogs will be 7.2% of the blogs present," says Francis L. Holland of the Afrosphere Action Coalition. According to Holland, many states with a strong black Democratic presence and population are either underrepresented or not represented at all, even though black bloggers from these states did apply. “The state of Tennessee, which often has over 25% blacks among its Democratic primary voters, will not have a single black blogger at the Democratic National Convention, for example. The District of Columbia, which is 60% black, will be left out. Louisiana, which is 32.4% black, will be left out. Illinois, the presidential nominee's home state, which is 15% black, will be left out."