At UW-Madison, Sonia Sotomayor speaks to need for greater equity in justice system

[n2doc]

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was warm and funny, but principled and passionate, too, in a 90-minute informal talk Thursday with an audience made up largely of law students and members of the local legal community at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

In a discussion that was part memoir, part primer on the U.S. justice system, and a call for equity in access to justice throughout, Sotomayor answered questions posed by two of her former law clerks for the Robert W. Kastenmeier Lecture, presented annually by the University of Wisconsin Law School.

The first Latina and the third woman to be named to the court, Sotomayor said it is not so much gender or ethnicity that shapes how she comes to the issues, but life experience.

“Sonia is not just a Latina, not just a woman,” she said, but also someone who went to Catholic school, worked as prosecutor in New York City, practiced commercial law and served on the federal district and circuit court benches.

more
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/university/at-uw-madison-sonia-sotomayor-speaks-to-need-for-greater/article_d28fe817-c526-5c6c-bced-65a32c22a165.html

[Stuart G]

1. proud to K and R...nt

[dembotoz]

2. walker and the wis gop will be upset...uw getting speeches from dem foreigners again

[malaise]

3. K & R n/t

[suffragette]

4. Reminds me of post I wrote about Sotomayor, access, and inclusion back in the day

Happy to see more about this now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5733426

Sotomayor, the Bartlett case and why we should care

[Its_About_Us]

5. Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness

As a UW-Madison alumnus I’m very pleased that the law school hosted Justice Sotomayor at the Union Theater. It’s a fantastic venue and the Justice’s presentation will be added to myriad events of social/historical significance held there over the years.

Like many of the states' flagship universities, UW-Madison is an intellectual and economic powerhouse. It has attracted brilliant minds from around the world and produced life-changing innovations across a vast swath of disciplines for generations (including my father’s, B.A. 1950). To say I’m a fan of UW is an understatement at the very least. In fact, it’s had so much influence on me that I’ve become sort of a single-issue voter. All in, if it’s good for UW, then it’s good for the State of Wisconsin.

So what does “good” mean to me? It means that the university continues to promote the inclusive “Wisconsin Idea;” that its students (and faculty) are not only free to pursue intellectual expansion and expression without the threat of state-sponsored reprisal - they are strongly encouraged to do so within a highly-diverse environment; that academic freedom be celebrated as a principal igniter and protector of all our freedoms; and that the state, embodying both the government and its citizenry, works with the university to realize together the highest potential of both.

Unfortunately, Governor Walker and his allies toil tirelessly to undermine UW through arbitrary budget cuts, threats to academic tenure and general, unbridled antagonism. While I’m fully aware of the right’s intention to drown government (along with its fruits) in a bathtub, I struggle with the obvious disconnect between its hope for a self-inflicted watery death and its voracious appetite for capital to fuel wealth. Nothing in the State of Wisconsin generates investment or attracts capital of a magnitude remotely close to that of UW (much of which, BTW, is contributed from outside the state). Consequently, the state’s dismissive conduct can only be due to ignorance. Or is it hubris (i.e., the celebration of ignorance)? I’m going with the latter given the failure of the state's most influential legislators to attend and graduate from any college located in Wisconsin along with the governor’s: (a) lack of desire; and/or (b) inability to complete his undergraduate education at Marquette University. Notwithstanding, a friend of mine has strong suspicions regarding the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome on Mr. Walker. Take a good look at those eyes sometime.