Question about La Raza

[TheBisexualProfessor]

Now that the Supreme Court nominee is out, and the American Bar Assn. has stated that she was a member of La Raza as late as 2000, I have a question. What is YOUR opinion ... is the National Council of La Raza an extremist organization or not?

[TwylaTwobits]

No, they aren't. They have been criticized for being exclutionary but La Raza has done a lot of good things for the Hispanic Americans. Personally I am more intrigued by the news story that reading Nancy Drew inspired her to be a lawyer.

People are going to have differering opinions no matter what information is out there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Council_of_La_Raza

For me, I don't give a good damned as long she upholds the Constitution of the United States and improves the justice system for ALL Americans.

[littlerayofsunshine]

What's your point with this question?


I went to their website and all they try to do is promote the Latino/Hispanic communities. If you download their annual report they give a clear lists of affiliates. Shows Obama and McCain at an event hosted by La Raza They proudly display their Contributors/corporate sponsors.

Extremists how? Where do you even come up with that?

I looked up the word La Raza and It translated to "The Cosmic Race" Referring too how eventually every race will be identifiable on/in every country and racial mixing will eventually take place. (Interesting concept. future people will have great skin and asses.and good hair and lips and my :bigrin:. Yummy)

Do I fault her for being a member of a Council that supports the advancement of a people? No, They weren't blowing other races up to make moving up in population easier.

Being on the Supreme Court doesn't mean you can't have had your own opinions and support for a community. It just requires you to have Moral Turpitude and Follow the law as it is written and Change it if goes against the constitution.


Immigrants needed civil rights, woman had to fight for civil rights, African Americans had to fight for Civil Rights and so do the Latinos. And it didn't take just one kind of people. IT takes all kinds of people for every kind of people.

[hudson9]

I find it curious that so many of the commentators and politicians so concerned about an organization called "La Raza" had no problems with earlier nominees who belonged to country clubs that excluded Blacks and Jews, or who had even been clan members...

I never take an accusation like that without checking out myself what the real nature of the organization is. Everything I have seen indicates that her membership in this organization is completely appropriate.

BTW -- Judge Sotomayor also has more actual judicial experience than any of the currently seated Justices had when they were nominated.

[jamieknyc]

BTW -- Judge Sotomayor also has more actual judicial experience than any of the currently seated Justices had when they were nominated.

Yes, but she is a very mediocre jurist.

Liberals pick Supreme Court nominees by identity politics rather than by picking the best candidates, and then wonder why they are outmatched on the Court by the conservatives.

[hudson9]

Yes, but she is a very mediocre jurist.

That is actually not the opinion of judges she has worked with or lawyers who have appeared before her. Only of people who still think they have something to fear from women and minorities.

[open2both]

Yes they are!
You can "wrap" racism in "presentable" packaging BUT their whole reason for being is RAZA aka RACE!
I live in L.A. and it's crushing!

[weskain77]

La Raza openly supports illegal immigration both financially and by organizing "help".

60% of Sotomayors appeals that have gone to the Supreme court have been overturned (ummm alarming)

Sotomayor has repeatedly referred to her gender and ethnicity as qualifying factors to make judgments better than "white men"

It's embarrassing that she is being considered.

[raloot]

FYI, La Raza is an organization composed mostly of Mexican Americans.
Judge Sotomayor is of Puertorican ancestry (both her parents). I doubt
very much a Puertorican would belong to La Raza. People tend to bundle
all hispanics together not knowing customs are different. A hispanic from Chile is very different from one from the Dominican Republic.

[rissababynta]

FYI, La Raza is an organization composed mostly of Mexican Americans.
Judge Sotomayor is of Puertorican ancestry (both her parents). I doubt
very much a Puertorican would belong to La Raza. People tend to bundle
all hispanics together not knowing customs are different. A hispanic from Chile is very different from one from the Dominican Republic.

And, and many hispanics are quite offended if you get it wrong :-/

[hudson9]

If anyone is interested in investigating the accuracy of the "charges" directed against La Raza, rather than merely digesting the biased bloviations of reflexively oppositional right-wing Republicans, La Raza has posted a point-by-point analysis at:
http://www.nclr.org/content/viewpoints/detail/42500/

...as well as some general statements. Some excerpts:

"NCLR’s network of 115 charter schools provides quality education to more than 25,000 Latino children every year. The health clinics we helped build and the lay health educators we trained provided care and information about prevention and detection of serious illnesses to nearly 100,000 people in 2006. Our Affiliates are working every day to help Hispanic immigrants integrate fully into American society by providing English-language classes, civics courses, and naturalization assistance..."

(If that's racist, then the Steuben Society (German immigrants), the Polaski Soc. (Polish immigrants), the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers, and the Knights of Columbus, and the Catholic Church are all racists...)

"...work in the health arena has been honored by the Surgeon General of the United States... Among the many awards NCLR has received... the prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights... NCLR is featured alongside Habitat for Humanity and the Heritage Foundation in Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, a book that analyzes the practices of nonprofit organizations..."

[raloot]

And, and many hispanics are quite offended if you get it wrong :-/

I am one! The same thing an Anglo American would do if someone says he/she is a New Zelander, for example.

[rissababynta]

I am one! The same thing an Anglo American would do if someone says he/she is a New Zelander, for example.

Lol, my husband and I lived in an area that if anyone was hispanic, they were most often puerto rican...so my husband used to always sit there and complain about how he's mexican not puerto rican haha.

[12voltman59]

La Raza openly supports illegal immigration both financially and by organizing "help".

60% of Sotomayors appeals that have gone to the Supreme court have been overturned (ummm alarming)

.

This is one of those tidbits of things that don't tell the entire story--in her time as an judge--she has ruled on-- something like over 3,000 cases-of which a mere pittance--something like 8 cases have gone to the Supreme Court----and she did have more than half of those cases overturned---Chief Justice Roberts----who is now our Chief Justice, as appointed by Bush----like Sotomayor----he had many cases in his career that he ruled on--not as many in total as did Sotomayor--but of Robert's cases that made it to the Supreme Court (also fewer than ten cases)----he had 100 percent of the cases heard by the Court overturned by them---he was hailed as being a great nominee by the Bush Administration-----and while the Democrats may not have liked Roberts--they never brought up such an insignificant statistical number in their critiques of Roberts.

Sotomayor's total number of successful rulings is way up in the 90+ percent range--if she were a baseball player and had a batting average-it would be something like 970 or so--one of the best batting averages in the history of the universe!!


Let's face it---any person that Obama will nominate----he or she will be not be acceptable to the Republicans-but guess what---GET OVER IT!!

As the talking heads like Chris Matthews on MSNBC likes to say---"elections have consequences!" for many reasons----one such reason is that the winner of the presidency has at least the possibility he or she will get to nominate someone to the SCOTUS.

OBAMA WON THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE!!!! Bush got his people on the Court----Obama should get his---for good or ill. That is the way the "game is played!"

Just as those of us who didn't much care for Bush---we had to lump it for eight years----for those who don't much care for Obama---you just have to lump it too!! Get over it--OBAMA WON!!

I don't know much about Sotomayor----and it is kind of hard as a civilian to know how qualified she may or may not be--like most things these days--it depends upon your world view, and the sources one relies upon for information---on the "right"--she is of course---just terrible and of course----on the "left"--she is the best nominee ever!!

As with most things in life----the quality of the qualifications Sonia Sotomayor possesses for the position to which she has been nominated are most likely somewhere between the two extremes.

[dfwbi-cyclist]

but of Robert's cases that made it to the Supreme Court (also fewer than ten cases)----he had 100 percent of the cases heard by the Court overturned by them---

WTF!? Really?? No wonder it's the same people posting over and over in here again. They all spew "facts" that anyone with more than an eighth grade education know is a flat out lie (but hey, we are "friends" when it comes to attacking "conservatives" so we wont point our stupidity out to each other).

Roberts was still sitting on the US 2nd Dist. when they ruled on enemy combatants and Guantanamo. Both were appealed to the Supreme Court and as I recall were probably upheld (as the Obama administration has figured out is not such a bad idea after all).

Of course if I were online so much that I was able to rack up several thousand posts (ie detached from the rest of humanity/life/reality) I might come across as uneducated myself...

[rissababynta]

Ok...why do people have to immediately go from debating to insults...
sigh

[lixxnsuxx]

"Sotomayor has repeatedly referred to her gender and ethnicity as qualifying factors to make judgments better than "white men""
I wonder what would happen if Sotomayor had said "black men"?
BTW LaRaza is definitely racist.

[TaylorMade]

Ok...why do people have to immediately go from debating to insults...
sigh

Nothing brings out the nasties like politics, because on some level it's personal. Believe me, I was a PoliSci major in an election year. The word "electability" makes me break out in cold sweats. . .if you want a good majority on this forum to hate you. . . say something that is

1) Political

2) Unexpected

Works every time. :p

*Taylor*

[TaylorMade]

After a while it's as sporting as fishing with explosives :bigrin:

Oh yeah, that shit can be hilarious, but eh, not feeling for it right now. :p

*Taylor*

[JP1986UM]

From an unbiased perspective, I know for a fact, that Findlaw has her as having been reversed on 3 of 5 cases that were accepted for SCOTUS review.

That also means the other judges who voted with her were also reversed.

Likely a Second Amendment case will also be reversed, but she'll be approved.

I know someone who has argued before her and he doesn't like her. Calls her a hard ass with few facts to ask and relies on emotion rather than law. I bet I could find one who says differently.

Will she be any more than Ginsberg has been? Unlikely. No one really looks to Ginsbergs opinions for legal revelation. She's just not that inciteful. Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer (from time to time), and Alito are the one's a few people I know love to read when an opinion comes out. They're opinions stick on law and its implementation, not "how will this affect the single mom".

Frankly the law doesn't care. Its blind as the single/married, sex, locale, or shape shouldn't matter. Lady Justice is blind.

So the question is about the Obama need to find empathy. That's an unconstitutional principle. The law is blind. Empathy plays no role. Don't like it, write a different law. I want a brilliant legal mind. Someone who knows that the Constitution stands for something for all, not to isolate, relitigate, make up for, or get even with someone down the line.

Will she be even handed? I don't know that.

[lixxnsuxx]

"Will she be even handed?" Let me see..... Articles and publications have indicated she has repeatedly placed her gender and race before the law.. NO!