When President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, he talked not only about her broad legal experience and distinguished career, but also about the importance of empathy – the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes and to see legal problems from the point of view of the people who are affected by them. As civil rights advocates, we know how important this is. We bring cases on behalf of people in our community who have faced discrimination. Some have been fired or denied a job; others have been refused medical treatment or have had custody of their children taken away because of their sexual orientation or HIV status. The judges who hear their cases don’t always have personal knowledge about these kinds of injustices, but we hope they will have enough empathy to understand the unfairness and harm caused by them. And they must be ready to uphold the law.

 

Lambda Legal does not make nominee endorsements. We fight for fairness by making the case for LGBT equality in state and federal courts and we cannot appear to be helping to seat the very judges before whom we will bring these cases.

 

We also do our homework so we can speak up when any nominee appears to have a record of bias or inability to rule fairly. If we see evidence that a nominee holds stereotyped or prejudiced views of LGBT people or people with HIV or lack of respect for the laws protecting civil rights, we will say so and oppose their nomination. 

 

Based on what we know about Judge Sotomayor, we believe she meets the criteria to render decisions that uphold the constitution and the law; and, she has excellent credentials to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. She has been criticized by some for her leadership in civil rights organizations advocating for the Latina/o community. That criticism is foolish. Working hard to promote equality in our country is an honorable and necessary task. At Lambda Legal, we do it every day and we commend Judge Sotomayor for doing her part.

 

We know how vital it is for our community and our nation to have a fair and impartial judiciary and our Fair Courts Project has communicated our detailed criteria to the Obama Administration (lambdalegal.org/fair-courts-project) to help ensure just that. The fight for LGBT equality depends on it.