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Judge Sotomayor on property rights

Judge Sotomayor’s respect for property rights disturbs me. In Didden v. Village of Port Chester she ruled against a private citizen and in favor of a local government. “The case involved about as naked an abuse of government power as could be imagined,” wrote law professor Richard Epstein in his recent Forbes column.

There’s also her controversial quote. In deciding court cases, Judge Sotomayor said she would “hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Paraphrasing Thomas Sowell, what if a Supreme Court nominee hoped for the opposite? That is, that a wise white man with “rich experiences” would more often than not reach a better judicial conclusion than a Latina female, who had led a different life? Why would this be any more or less objectionable than Judge Sotomayor’s hope?

I prefer the view often attributed (perhaps erroneously) to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, that “a wise old man and a wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases.”

The above was published in the Daily Camera (Boulder) on May 30, 2009.

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