An excellent letter in support of Judge Sottomayor

From today's NYT letter To the Editor:
Women and minorities have suffered a long history of legal and other decisions, made predominantly by white men, that disenfranchised them, kept them underpaid and denied them access to many educational and job opportunities. Those white men probably thought that their decisions were based on objective facts rather than their particular perspectives.
Not only do male justices need to hear the perspectives of women, particularly women of color, but they and those who confirm them also need to recognize that white men — like everyone — have perspectives informed by race and gender.
When Justice Stephen G. Breyer brings his youthful locker-room recollections into discussion of a case about strip-searching a young woman, who among his male colleagues (or those men who confirmed him) is disturbed that he is calling upon a gender-based experience?
We should be more concerned that a woman’s perspective may not be heard, even when a woman is present. When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says that her comments are sometimes ignored in the group of male justices until someone else makes the same point, she is reporting the experience of countless lone women in male groups. I detailed this experience in a study I co-wrote on “Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance” (Wellesley Centers for Women, 2006).
I have no doubt that putting a second woman back on the court would have the same beneficial effect as adding a second woman to a corporate board, and that a third would be even better for the operation of justice.
Vicki W. Kramer Philadelphia, June 5, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/opinion/l08judges.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

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