9:53 am By Maegan La Mala · Politics · 2 Comments
3 Nov 2005
For many Latinos, President Bush’s latest pick for the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito, was no treat. On Halloween the Hispanic Bar Association expressed their
profound disappointment that for the third time in the last six months President George W. Bush has ignored the estimated 41.3 million Americans of Hispanic descent in his choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.
Personally I think Bush was ignoring Latinos way before this musical chair game of Supreme Court nominations and honestly am surprised at the surprise at Bush not putting forward a candidate of color or with a vagina but let’s look at what we do have in Sam Alito.
Alito is a conservative with a Roman-Catholic background, so you can add him to your prayer list. He is anti-choice. In 1997 Alito argued
against a racial-discrimination claim made by a black woman. In 2001 Alito joined in on an opinion that set aside Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) orders to clean up ammonia from a fertilizer plant that polluted drinking-water wells.
While we as Latinos do not get to vote directly for the justices of the highest court in this country, some of us do get to vote for the Senators who question and approve the nominations. Sam Alito is not Latino and it looks like he won’t be good for us either.
Via / DiversityInc and U.S. Newswire
In a speech to the Hispanic National Bar Association, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Latinos to get over it about him, or any other Latino for that matter, not being nominated to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court and to throw their support behind Harriet Miers. According to AP, Gonzales asked that:
you and others reserve judgment and give her an opportunity to show why she would be good for the Court, for the country, and for the Hispanic community.
Gonzales was passed over not once but twice for a spot on the nation’s highest court, first to John Roberts and now to Ms. Miers.
Latino Pundit probably hit it right on the nose when he says that Gonzales’s request is probably based more on loyalty to the Republican hands that feed him than on a real belief that Miers is going to do right by the community. The little we do know about Miers is cause enough for concern. She’s anti-choice and thinks President Bush is the smartest person she’s met, ever (really mujer needs to get out more). According to ImmigrationProf Blog when Miers worked as President of the State Bar of Texas she did some pro-bono work handling an immigration and naturalization case for Catholic Charities of Dallas. Hopefully she didn’t help deport people and hopefully Latinos won’t just go the way of sheep and follow what Gonzales says just because he is “one of us”.
Via / Latino Pundit and Los Angeles Times
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by 2 Mujeres Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse and influential Latino and Latina community in the U.S.
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