Sonia Sotomayor and the Hearing Committee

The Capitol Hill hearing room these days looks a lot like a scene from the beginning Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix in which Harry Potter is on trial at the Ministry of Magic for using magic outside of school. But instead of Harry Potter, sitting under the spotlight of scrutinizing eyes is Judge Sonia Sotomayor (and of course we must remember that she isn’t on stand at a criminal trial but at a hearing confirmation).

But it is difficult to ignore the large forces playing out in Capitol Hill that at times evoke an image of stubborn bureaucrats blocking Potter’s noble mission to overcome a growing evil threat. What’s at play is a tradition of a club that had long belonged to a group of “wise old” white men who interpreted the Constitutions according to their experiences, observations and prejudices against the experience, observations and biases of a “wise old Latina woman” who will potentially uphold the highest law of the land.

For the past three days, some of the Senators at the hearing have been beating the dead horse of what exactly Sotomayor meant with her “wise Latina woman” comment; almost as much as Rowling’s Ministry characters whose only argument to Harry using magic outside of school was: but it’s illegal. One has to wonder, then, if these bureaucrats are not attacking the person under scrutiny as much as they are defending themselves against an inevitable truth: perhaps they are wrong.

Although there is no one Republican stance against Sotomayor, the bipartisan politics in the hearing have been difficult to hide. And it is plain to see that the Republicans are concerned that a Latina woman who gained “empathy” from the President of the United States will not judge based on objectivity, but from personal sympathies, and that deep down inside, she really does believe and practice by affirmative action. They are afraid that her poor background as a child, her color, her race, her name will inevitably tar her rulings.

And yet, these Senators must at least think, or it must have crossed their mind, that the white, male, privileged backgrounds that belonged to most Supreme Court justices has also shaped how they have ruled in the past. The Constitution is not interpreted objectively, nor was it written objectively. It is only with diversity in opinions in a courtroom can a group of justices strive to an unbiased ruling, because sometimes even a wise white man will not come to the same conclusion as another wise white man. But these Republicans have not acknowledged this. As CNN (wow!) has been reporting, it is no secret that Republicans are afraid of liberal politics reaching the Supreme Court.

Perhaps because they realize they don’t have a case against the judge that these men have interrogated Sotomayor on abortion, harped on the 2nd amendment, and ultimately returned to her wise Latina comment. (“But I was being attacked by dementors!”cries Harry. “It doesn’t matter! Using magic outside of school is illegal!”)

Watching Senator Sessions grill Sotomayor over and over, the fantasy fanatic in me eagerly waits and wants Sotomayor to stop, look at him straight in the face, and admit, “Yes, I’m Obama’s woman through and through.” (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince reference if you didn’t catch it). It’s the triumph of good over evil! Hoorah!

At the end of his trial, charges against Harry Potter are dropped because they live in dangerous times and the law should have exceptions to allow one to defend one’s self. In reality, it is terrifying to think that the law can become flexible and molded to one’s preferences. We have seen the dangers to this when the Bush administration used fear to justify counter-terrorism efforts that challenged American civil rights and universal human rights.

That is why I was happy that Republican-turned-Democrat Senator Specter and Senator Al Franken challenged Sotomayor on judicial activism, on separation of powers, and the lack of judiciary accountability (which it perhaps needed given the 2000 elections). No, this is not a fantasy, and we live in a world where we don’t know who the good and bad forces are. The most we can do is tend to the weaknesses in our system. It’s not a bad idea to start in the place that upholds the law of the land.