We Should Require Women on the Court

[leftyladyfrommo]

At least 50%. Women bring very important ways of looking at things that men simply do not have.

[Missy M]

1. Thank you, I have been saying that forever.....

it should be 50/50 to be fair.

[Bill McBlueState]

2. they do it in iraq, right?

When we install our little democracy projects around the world, we're okay with requiring a certain percentage of the government to be women. Why not here?

[Warren Stupidity]

3. I disagree.

Quotas are bullshit. We should put a liberal/progressive government in power that will appoint qualified liberal progressive people to all positions in government, without regard to race, religion, ethnicity or gender. We should restart the hard work of making sure that every child in this nation has access to the resources needed to enable that child to reach its fullest potential as a human being. We should reject the politics of division that have enabled the fascists to manipulate one group against another.

[shance]

5. I believe if you were a woman, you would probably understand better.

No matter how progressive a man may be, he can not understand what it is like to be a woman.

Nor can a woman fully understand what it is like to be a man. Although I believe women on the whole, try harder to understand and empathize with the viewpoints and perspectives of men, than vice versa.

I also believe it is a travesty we are in the 21st century and there is not more ethnic diversity and representation in our Congressional ranks and judicial positions. For the longest time I never thought about it because it didn't seem to affect me. Now, I believe it affects everyone and the quality or lack thereof of our overall governance. I believe without a doubt we will be a better, more peaceful nation when we have a governing body that actually represents the diversity of cultures and background this country has. I often wonder, where are the Native Americans in our leadership positions?

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Quotas will make things worse.

That has nothing to do with my inability to 'fully understand what it is like' to be something I am not. It is a statement about the merits of a specific approach to addressing issues of equality.

As it is, quite a few Republican voters vote against their own economic self interest because they believe that the Democratic Party is going to take away their jobs and give them to 'those people', when in reality Corporate America is taking all of our jobs and sending them overseas in order to increase their wealth and power.

Quotas might seem like an easy way to address equality: superficially the problem is eliminated overnight. In reality the underlying fundamental problems that caused the inequality to begin with are not addressed, as quotas treat the symptoms of inequality, not the cause. In reality quotas become an organizing tool used to divide blacks from whites, men from women, anglos from hispanics, used to pit one group against the other so that we fight each other rather than the elites who are plundering the nation for their personal enrichment.

[sandnsea]

11. I completely disagree

I don't have a problem in the world with quotas. I completely disagree that it would necessarily lead to further division or pitting one group against another. The only reason it has is because the right wing created a trumped up wedge issue. That and a particular group of petty citizens who can't stand not leaping to the head of the class based on their gender and race, the way they have for hundreds of years.

Having said that, quotas wouldn't guarantee any outcome anyway because there are as many different views on particular issues as there are women and minorities. But sometimes it does take forcing the change in order to even begin the transition to a society that truly embraces equality.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. You are naive.

"The only reason it has is because the right wing created a trumped up wedge issue."

Affirmative action was instituted durring the nixon years, and the right was queitly all for it precisely because they knew they could use it to create a trumped up wedge issue. It is the fact that quotas are so easy to use to create a 'trumped up wedge issues' that is one of the reasons that I think they are stupid.

Another reason for my opposition is that quotas put a bandaid on an open sore. Affirmative action, for example, masks the underlying institutional racism of inferior educational opportunities for urban children. The underlying problem has in fact GOTTEN WORSE since affirmative action put a big old wedge issue bandaid over racism, allowing comfortable suburban liberals to pretend that enough has been done and providing this huge political target for the right to exploit, carving off large chunks of the Democratic voting base. Wonderful. Indeed lets have more quotas.

[sandnsea]

14. Racism is alive and well

All I see is a bunch of white guys who were used to having the world handed to them on a silver platter. Sure, they had to go to college or trade school, but the jobs were there waiting for them. Now they have to compete from the SAME starting point as women and minorities, not 50 yards ahead. It pisses them the hell off. So yeah, they're voting for the party that promises the top of the heap status. It's that same racism that has contributed to the decay of urban schools because employment still isn't equal and the white tax base refused to be integrated. No liberal has pretended enough has been done for inner city education or communities, that's why there was all kinds of funding for after school programs, youth programs, even cops on the street, during the Clinton years. Racism carved off chunks of the Democratic voting base and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

[NaturalHigh]

6. I'm with you.

Quotas are an idiotic, "feel-good" answer.

[SmokingJacket]

15. Normally I'd agree with you, but since there are some laws that

only affect women, women need to be well represented.

So... I think this idea is sorta worth thinking about. Guess it just rubs me the wrong way, as a woman, to know that a majority male court has the right to determine abortion law.

[bloom]

4. I agree

Until there is more equality in our governing institutions - we are not going to have equality in our lives.

[meow2u3]

8. Be careful what you wish for, leftylady

We may end up with Annthrax and other misogynist women on the supreme court.

[Mr.Green93]

9. Just white women?

and only heterosexual?

[DainBramaged]

10. After watching Scalito walk away from his "crying" wife

as if she didn't exist at the end of the hearings (Crooks and Liars has the video) I'm not surprised how this bunch of Federalist (old boy's school) mentality will rule the courts for 20+ more years.

I am very afraid for our system of checks and balances, for our Constitution and laws in general. This Scalito IS the guy they wanted, not Harriet Meyers, and they will eliminate women from the decision making process if given the chance.

God help us.

[upi402]

12. i don't go for sexism anymore... either direction.

sorry, but i disagree