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Former House Speaker Gingrich Backpedals On Calling Sotomayor "Racist"
June 3, 2009 11:46 a.m. EST
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Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is considering running for president in 2012, on Wednesday took back his comment accusing Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor of being a racist. The judge, a nominee to be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, is facing criticisms about previous statements on how her ethnicity affects her rulings.
Sotomayor is currently meeting with Senate leaders and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of about her nomination to take the seat of retiring Justice David Souter when the Supreme Court's new term begins on Oct. 5.
Conservatives have cited her 2002 speech at the University of California, Berkeley as evidence that she is an activist judge. In that address, Sotomayor said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often that not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
A TV ad from the Judicial Confirmation Network also shows footage of her saying, "The court of appeals is where policy is made."
Rush Limbaugh, who in January said he hoped President Barack Obama fails, has called Sotomayor a "racist." Former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, speaking about her on CNN, also called the Hispanic non-profit National Council of La Raza (NCLR) "a Latino KKK without the hoods and the nooses."
Gingrich had said via his Twitter account last week, "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism. White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw."
But on Wednesday he wrote on his website, "My initial reaction was strong and direct -- perhaps too strong and too direct. The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the nation's highest court have been critical of my word choice."
"With these critics...I agree," he added. "The word 'racist' should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable... In fairness to the judge, many of her rulings as a court of appeals judge do not match the radicalism of her speeches... She has shown more caution and moderation in her rulings... So the question we need to ask ourselves in considering Judge Sotomayor's confirmation is this: Which judge will show up on the Supreme Court, the radical from her speeches or the convention liberal from her rulings?"
Republican leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the top Republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee, have repeatedly said they will give Sotomayor a "fair hearing."
But they have also emphasized their opposition to judges who judges who aren't "faithful in interpreting the constitutional laws without regard to personal prejudices or political convictions."
Assistant Senate Minority Leader Jon Kyle (R-AZ) on Tuesday also pointed out, "When President Obama was a senator and he decided to vote [against] Justice Alito and Justice Roberts, he made a statement on the floor that in 95 percent of cases judges agree but that last 5 percent there may not be precedent, there may not be law to dictate the result. And that's when you have to let your feelings, your pre-conceived notions, your sense of empathy enter in --- that's wrong. His test is wrong. And I would hope this nominee would agree with the President's test."
A graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School, the 54-year-old Sotomayor will be the third woman to serve in the Supreme Court if she is confirmed by the Senate.
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