https://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2009/05/27/the-kind-of-justice-we-need-life-experience-affirmative-action-and-you/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 10 Jun 2026 09:45:22 -0400<![CDATA[Why did President Obama nominateJudge Sonia Sotomayor to fill Jusitce David Souter&#8217;s place on the Supreme Court? Because she gave him the requisite affirmative action points (female and ethnic minority)? Yes. Because she has shown in her opinions as an Appellate Court judge precisely the sort of judicial triumphalism that he himself favors as a means of enacting social policies he likes but the people, and the legislatures of the country, are less than keen about? Yes again. But her crowning qualification, the item that tipped the scale in her favor was what he referred to as her &#8220;experience&#8221;: not her judicial experience, I hasten to add, but her up-from-the-barrio experience as the daughter of poor immigrants from Puerto Rico. Quoth Obama: &#8220;Experience being tested by obstacles and barriers, by hardship and misfortune; experience insisting, persisting, and ultimately overcoming those barriers . . . is a necessary ingredient in the kind of justice we need on the Supreme Court.&#8221;]]>Wed, 27 May 2009 07:03:24 -0400<![CDATA[Roger Kimball]]>https://pjmedia.com/roger-kimball/2009/05/27/the-kind-of-justice-we-need-life-experience-affirmative-action-and-you-n115829