President Obama unleashed recently his pick for Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor.? The idea of a Hispanic woman representing us on the court is remarkable.? She is accomplished, smart and has a ton of relevant experience.? She was appointed originally through George H.W. Bush and has served her country for many years.? However, let us be realistic, she is a liberal leaning candidate.? President Obama deserves to appoint someone that represents his political views.? George Bush picked both Samuel Alito and John Roberts who are both committed conservatives, so I don’t think the criticism of her as a liberal is warranted as an argument against her.? I do, however, think there are two things that significantly trouble me.? First, she is an activist judge. Whether you are to the right or the left, the Supreme Court should be an interpretive body, not a legislative one.? I don’t believe in voting on the Supreme Court with your political party and based on your beliefs as an ideologue,?you should be voting based on your interpretations of law.? Secondly, her statement back in 2001 where she said her Puerto Rican heritage could cause her to see cases differently.? “Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences . . . our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. . . .,” she said. “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”? This is an extremely misinformed and non-productive statement.? Not just because she said it this one time, but because she repeated it over and over.? I believe it to be a racist statement.? If a white male ever made a statement like that, they would be chastised and branded a racist.? I don’t think that somebody who makes as irresponsible a statement should be on the highest court, its as simple as that.? However, this statement is most likely not going to cause any democrats (who control the debate) to railroad her out of the locomotive.? Therefore, I do think?that we deserve to have a legitimate and responsible debate on Ms. Sotomayor.? As a point for conservatives, I do think that there are significant issues where they could win some ground.? For starters, she is very hard on crime.? She supports harsh punishments for criminals and is a supporter of death penalty rights.? Secondly, on a few significant issues, i.e. abortion, her opinion is not known.? She is a Catholic and therefore she may have more sympathetic views towards the pro-life movement than many believe.? The Obama administration has stated that they have not asked and don’t know Sotomayor’s beliefs on abortion and therefore many people are “asking” questions.? The one thing that Obama did that was highly suspect was when he was pushing Sotomayor and said that nobody should be voting against her because of her political ideology but should based on her qualifications.? Considering that Roberts and Alito were highly qualified, but conservative leaning and Obama voted against them is very frustrating.? What do they say, practice what you preach.? We shall see on Sotomayor…I am pretty sure though that she will be confirmed without too much of a hitch.