Acknowledging our Influences

From Andy -- who is actually quoting Sotomayor below.

The historical profession has been in an internal war of this sort for more then a century.  Early in the last century many historians actually believed that they could be objective.  And that those who were not were not seen by many as professional historians.  What seems like a simple concept, is often purposely misunderstood by absolutists.  The goal is to be as objective as possible, to overcome our prejudices, while understanding that we will never be able to do so.  Acknowledging our ultimate inability to so is not a sign of weakness.  It is a sign of our humanity.  Something I see as strength. 

“Judge Cedarbaum... believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices and aspire to achieve a greater degree of fairness and integrity based on the reason of law. Although I agree with and attempt to work toward Judge Cedarbaum's aspiration, I wonder whether achieving that goal is possible in all or even in most cases. And I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society.

Whatever the reasons... we may have different perspectives, either as some theorists suggest because of our cultural experiences or as others postulate because we have basic differences in logic and reasoning....

Our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that—it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others....

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.

Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases.... I am... not so sure that I agree with the statement. First... there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I 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.”