Black Leaders Should Support a Hispanic Supreme Court Nominee

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President Barack Obama is about to enter into a real holy war and clash of the titans when he names a nominee to replace outgoing Associate Justice David Souter later this year.

Souter’s decision to retire has sent ripples throughout the US Senate and judicial circles over who will be the next person to serve on the highest court in the land with the power to make decisions that in the swift of a motion could change the face of America. Since the moment it was rumored that Souter was stepping down,  Liberals, Conservatives, Christians, and non-believers (you name it) started to prepare for the circus that engulfs Washington during these rare instances of a vacancy on the national court.

One group who seems very ready and even prepared for the fight is Hispanic activists who believe it is their time. They believe that the vacancy should be filled by one of their own and they are right because it is time.

It seems all but clear that whoever President Obama names to replace Souter to the court is not likely to be out of line with his ideological thinking. If anything, they are likely to be more liberal than the moderate Souter is now. For most people, the real debate is more on demographics and that war can be just as interesting as the one on ideology.

The current nine member court is made up of eight men and one woman. There is one African American and eight White members. The common way of thinking inside the Beltway is that the President, unless he wishes to write off the women vote totally, will pick a woman to join Ginsburg after President Bush failed to do so when Justice O’Conner stepped down.

The next major issue is what race they he/she should be. It has to be shocking that the fastest growing ethnic group in America is not represented at all on the nation’s highest court. President Obama has taken lots of heat from Hispanic groups for not naming one of them to a high profile position in his cabinet.

Many have still not gotten over the fact that Obama decided not to pick Bill Richardson, the popular New Mexico Governor and highest ranking elected Hispanic, as his Vice President deciding to go with Joe Biden instead. It didn’t help when he passed him over for Secretary of State and asked Hillary Clinton to take the job. When he did finally name Richardson to lead the Department of Commerce, but didn’t introduce him as a key member of his economic team the knife in their back to many in the community just seemed to go in deeper. Of course when Obama dumped Richardson as the investigation he was under back in his own state widened, the outrage became very public.

Naming the first Hispanic in the history of the country to the Supreme Court will not only help the President with this fast growing voting bloc but show he understands it is time.

So the important question is can he do it?

At a time that Hispanic activists and leaders say the anti-Hispanic feeling in America is at an all-time high, will the US Senate confirm one to a body that could play a pivotal role in deciding the fate of future immigration laws that are dividing many communities. I think the answer is yes but not without a fight.
Black civil rights groups are also preparing their own campaign for the court. Having Justice Thomas sitting in the seat that once belonged to the leader of the legal branch of the Civil Rights movement has never sat well with them when he first took Thurgood Marshall’s seat. For some, having a Black man in the White House makes them feel owed the appointment.

It is wrong to think that Blacks only deserve or will always have one seat on the court, but what is even more wrong is not to realize the very fact that there is at least one Black on the court. There has never been a single Hispanic at all. Black civil rights and political leaders will have to come to the realization that the President naming a Black person to the court would be hard itself — if he wanted to avoid the accusations of filling the bench with “his own kind” even if he wanted to.

Should President Obama decide to name an Hispanic woman to the court, they would have to immediately and clearly get behind the nominee in order to ward off any possible black/Hispanic war and help move the nomination quickly through. A racial war over the next Associate Justice will do nothing but ensure that the next one was not from either group.

The Supreme Court should look more like America as a whole. It does need to be more diverse for a nation quickly becoming a majority minority country but until we can do that, all groups (regardless of the ideology of the individual) have to have the opportunity for representation. Blacks like him or not have Justice Thomas. Lets give this group their voice.

Tagged as: Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Clarence Thomas, David Souter, Hispanic, Supreme Court

Article by Rev. Joseph Kitchen

Rev. Joseph has written 9 article(s) for us.