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Patchwork Nation’s views on Sotomayor

anna.shoup

Posted: 07.17.2009 / 7:03 AM PDT

For some – but not all in Patchwork Nation – Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is appealing because of her potential to expand the diversity of the high court.

“It is good that she is a ’she’ and also represents a portion of the population not as visible in leadership,” writes Betsy McBride, executive director of the Hampton Roads Center for Civic Engagement in Virginia. Hampton Roads is a “Military Bastion” in Patchwork Nation. “We want everyone to know that neither gender nor race is a barrier to full participation,” she adds in her e-mail.

For Eric Madkins in St. Louis, a big-city “Industrial Metropolis” community, Judge Sotomayor’s personal history does make a difference.

“There will be a percentage of Americans who may disagree with her rulings on cases. There will be a proportion who agree, however, that the most important thing to consider is diversity of thought,” writes in an e-mail Mr. Madkins, director of housing and foreclosure intervention at the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. “I truly believe that the Supreme Court should have representation that is reflective of the people they serve.”

One might expect that Sotomayor has many active supporters in “Immigration Nation” counties, which have a larger Hispanic population than the national average. Yet in Laredo, Texas, an “Immigration Nation” city, more conversations are about the economy than about Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, writes Dennis Nixon.

“Since her naming in May, healthcare reform, energy reform, immigration reform, and financial-services regulation reform, to name a few, have consumed Congress,” Mr. Nixon wrote in a Patchwork Nation post. “As I travel across Texas and Oklahoma, I hear more worry about unemployment, layoffs, and the government’s increasing ownership role in General Motors, banks, and coming soon – your next healthcare provider.”

For Nixon, who in Laredo is president and CEO of International Bancshares Corp., the largest Hispanic-owned bank in the continental United States, the issue should not be about Sotomayor’s ethnicity, but about her qualifications.

A remark that stuck

For many, a sticking point is the comment she made in a 2001 speech: “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 hasn’t lived that life.”

That statement that drawn attention in, among other places, those communities with a recent influx of immigrants – such as Cleveland, Tenn, a socially conservative “Evangelical Epicenter.”

“At a time when our local community is very concerned with immigration issues and the impact of illegal immigration, this quote has been the single most important factor in the opinion people have about Sotomayor,” e-mails Emily Beaty, a resident of Cleveland.

Wide support in polls

Overall, national polls show high approval for Sotomayor and have not changed much since her nomination in May.

A Quinnipiac University survey released last month found that 55 percent of American voters approved of her nomination, compared with 25 percent opposing it. Among whites, 49 approved of her nomination; among Hispanics, 58 percent approved; among blacks, it was 85 percent.

The same poll found that white evangelical Christians opposed her nomination 41 to 35 percent.