Can we have a balanced Supreme Court?

Sometimes when listening to the pundits on TV, I wish I could pull them out of there, or call up the people who are quoted on television or in news articles, or sit down in a room and have a chat.

Today was one of those days. Now, Good Morning America made it seem to me that opponents to Sonia Sotomayor in the Senate (which I refer to as Republicans) are bashing her because she thinks sometimes that women make better judges. So the gender card is out. And, according to the following study, women rule for the victim of sexual harrassment cases 10% more of the time. (Boyd, Martin, and Epstein, 2008), but really there is no difference otherwise.

What I want to say to Republicans, or anyone who thinks the gender issue will make her less effective as a judge, is "get off it." I think the Supreme Court needs the variety. Heck, we need a few more Latinos, maybe someone of Asian descent, certainly more women (50% would be ideal to me) and I don't know if the African American contingent is enough to represent that population. No matter how empathetic we are to other's situations, we can't really know everything unless we've lived it. A Supreme court that has more variety will get a wider variety of life experiences and opinions. They can learn from each other, and, I think, getting a better balanced judgement in the end. Nine justices doesn't allow for a lot of variety, but it does allow for some.

I also don't care if the Republicans decide to make a stink about the gender issue. More power to them, because that means they can drive their female base away. Anything they can continue to do to weaken their own party is fine by me. I just don't know how they can justify their opinions anymore. They have put down so many groups, there's not that many left for them to say they aren't wanted, not in so many words, but in their actions. They are becoming a joke. Too bad they didn't listen to Colin Powell. He could have been their saving grace, but instead the "party leaders" that be made fun of him. I don't know what they have left to tout, because they blew their fiscal responsibility card with me when they spent billions on a war that cannot be justified, no matter how they try to spin it. And they complain that Obama is spending way too much? Come on, what if the money spent on the war had instead been there when this economic crisis hit? How many things at home, in the US, could we have fixed using that money? In some ways, this is where a case of isolationism might have done us some good.

But, I digress. Go Sonia, let's get another woman or two on there, and let's move on. I am so glad for better balance on the court.