
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
June 16, 2009
24 Sivan 5769
Equality or pay-back?
By
Thomas Sowell
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Back when I was on the receiving end of racial discrimination,
it was to me not simply a personal misfortune, or even the misfortune of a
race, it was a moral outrage. But not everyone who went through such an
experience sees it that way.
When it comes to subjecting other people to the same treatment
in a later era, some have no real problem with that. They see it as
pay-back.
One of the many problems of the pay-back approach is that many
of the people who most deserve retribution are no longer alive. You can take
symbolic revenge on people who look like them but this removes the whole
moral element. If it is all right to discriminate today against individuals
who have done you no harm, then why was it wrong to discriminate against you
in the past?
These are not just abstract questions. These are serious, real
world questions, especially when considering someone to be given a lifetime
appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Some judicial nominees have had racial bias attributed to them,
despite their years of unwavering support of civil rights for all Judge
Robert Bork and Judge Charles Pickering being striking examples. But the
current Supreme Court nominee is the first in decades to explicitly
introduce racial differences in their own words, along with the claim that
their own racial or ethnic background makes them better qualified.
| FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO INFLUENTIAL NEWSLETTER |
| Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here. |
|
Attempts to claim that Judge Sonia Sotomayor's words were
isolated remarks a slip of the tongue "taken out of context" have now
been discredited by further information showing that she has repeatedly
expressed the same ideas, in virtually the same words, at other times and in
other contexts.
Moreover, her deeds including years of participation in group
identity politics are perfectly consistent with her words. So too was her
vote on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to summarily dismiss the appeal of
white firefighters who did not get the promotions they had earned by passing
a required test, because not enough minority firefighters passed to provide
racial "diversity."
The Supreme Court of the United States found that appeal worth
hearing, even if Judge Sotomayor did not.
The warm and genial image of Sonia Sotomayor presented on
television, during President Obama's introduction and afterwards, is in
sharp contrast with what attorneys who have appeared before her in court
have said.
A poll of such attorneys showed them rating her worse than other
judges in her treatment of those who appeared before her. A tape of Judge
Sotomayor's abusive behavior in court backed up the attorneys' picture. It
is also consistent with someone in pay-back mode.
A confirmation decision on a Supreme Court nominee is not like
deciding whether someone is innocent or guilty of a crime. It is right in
criminal cases that the burden of proof is on those making an accusation,
and that the accusation be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt."
Judge Sotomayor is not in jeopardy of either criminal or civil
penalties. So there is no reason why either the criminal standard or proof
"beyond a reasonable doubt" or the civil standard of "the preponderance of
evidence" is required for determining whether she is the right person to be
given a lifetime appointment to the highest court of the land.
It is hundreds of millions of Americans current and future
whose fundamental rights are at stake whenever any nominee is being
considered for the Supreme Court of the United States. It is the American
people as a whole who are entitled to the benefit of the doubt.
One of those fundamental rights was taken away just four years
ago, when a 5 to 4 decision by the Supreme Court gave local politicians the
right to seize your home or business and turn the property over to some
other private party that they favor. Just one vote on the Supreme Court can
make a huge difference.
We have been told endlessly about Sonia Sotomayor's biography
and her symbolism as a Hispanic woman. Is that enough to risk millions of
other Americans' fundamental rights?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor Thomas Sowell's column by clicking here.
Thomas Sowell Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|