Ginsburg Defends Sotomayor's "Wise Latina Woman" Remark
In a candid interview with the New York Times that is running in this weekend's magazine, SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says that as the only woman on the nation's highest court she almost feels like she's back in law school in 1956, where there were just nine women in her class of 500.
"You felt that every eye was on you," she tells the NYT's Emily Bazelon. "Every time you went to answer a question, you were answering for your entire sex. It may not have been true, but certainly you felt that way. You were different and the object of curiosity."
In other words, the place is lonely for a gal. In '93, when she was confirmed, Ginsburg, now 76, predicted that the female population of the court would grow to three or four during her tenure.
"My prediction was right for the Supreme Court of Canada," she says. "They have Beverley McLachlin as the chief justice, and they have at least three other women. The attrition rate is slow on this court."
Ginsburg also gave a full-throated defense of Pres. Obama's SCOTUS appointee Sonia Sotomayor's '01 comment that a "wise, Latina woman" would "more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
"I thought it was ridiculous for them to make a big deal out of that," Ginsburg said. "Think of how many times you've said something that you didn't get out quite right, and you would edit your statement if you could. I'm sure she meant no more than what I mean when I say: Yes, women bring a different life experience to the table. All of our differences make the conference better. That I'm a woman, that's part of it, that I'm Jewish, that's part of it, that I grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and I went to summer camp in the Adirondacks, all these things are part of me."
