Sen. Sessions Apparently Not So "Troubled" By Sotomayor's Comments On Race

Sessions Claimed He Was "Troubled" By Sotomayor's "Wise Latina" Comment

Responding to David Gregory on Meet The Press, Sen. Sessions said he would ask Judge Sotomayor about her "wise Latina" comment during their meeting this week:

MR. GREGORY: "This is what she said: '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 wasn't lived that life. ... Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what the difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.'

Senator Sessions, are you troubled by that?"

SEN. SESSIONS: Well, yes, because the entire concept of the American rule of law is blindfolded justice, that the judge sets aside their personal and political and biases of any kind and gives an objective ruling on the law and on the facts. People have to believe that or they lose respect for the law. They--the marvelous moral authority of the law can be undermined if people think that the decision's being made by--on the basis of a judge's personal views or biases or background. And I don't--I think that's--I read her piece, it's very interesting. I think it's something we need to probe. But I think it goes against the great heritage of American law that calls for judges to be a neutral umpire, as John Roberts said.

MR. GREGORY: You will see her this week. What specifically will you ask her on this point?

SEN. SESSIONS: Well, I will talk to her about that. There was a lot in that speech that was interesting, a lot that was troubling to me. I think we ought to be honest about it and give her a full, fair opportunity to explain what she meant in its context. [Sen. Sessions Interview on Meet The Press via RealClearPolitics, 5/31/09, emphasis added]

During Meeting, Sessions Did NOT Ask Sotomayor For An Explanation

However, Sen. Sessions did "not directly" ask Sotomayor about the comment and avoided talking about it after their meeting:

QUESTION: Senator, did you directly ask her about the comments that she made in 2001 suggesting that the experience of a Latina woman makes somebody like that better equipped than a white male?

SESSIONS: No, not directly. We talked about the idea and the concept of personal feelings and -- to some degree, you know, how that influences a decision and how it should not.

And I won't go into the -- I think our conversation was one that we should -- it was, you know, a confidential conversation.

QUESTION: Can you just tell us whether or not her answer to that question reassured you about her approach?

SESSIONS: Well, we talked about it briefly, and let's not go into that in a lot of detail. [Sen. Sessions News Conference via CQ, 6/2/09, emphasis added]