Judge Calabresi on Sotomayor Critics:
Sexism in its Most Obvious Form
June 15, 2009
by The New Agenda
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On NPR’s Morning Edition today, reporter Nina Totenberg confronted the bias underneath complaints that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is a bully with a temperament problem.
Judge Guido Calabresi, former Yale Law School dean and Sotomayor’s mentor, now says that when Sotomayor first joined the Court of Appeals, he began hearing rumors that she was overly aggressive, and he started keeping track, comparing the substance and tone of her questions with those of his male colleagues and his own questions.
“And I must say I found no difference at all. So I concluded that all that was going on was that there were some male lawyers who couldn’t stand being questioned toughly by a woman,” Calabresi says. “It was sexism in its most obvious form.”
And what if such criticism came from a woman lawyer? Well, says Calabresi, women can be just as sexist as men in their expectations of how a woman judge should act.
Confirmation hearings will begin July 13. That’s when Senators Dianne Feinstein, Amy Klobuchar, and 17 old guys will begin public questioning of Sotomayor. We’ll be watching to make sure that they do so with an even temperament.
Gretchen Carlson
Claudia Poccia
Jacki Zehner
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