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Nominee’s Links With Advocates Fuel Her Critics

In the 1980s, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund sued the New York City Police Department, claiming that its promotion exams discriminated against Latinos and African-Americans.

Game Developer, Staff

May 29, 2009

9 Min Read

long term disability insurance coverage builders insurance The fund, one life insurance calculator of the advocacy groups pressing similar cases across the country, also helped redraw voting districts in the city that increased the number of Hispanic elected officials. The defense fund even sued a former Reagan administration official for defamation car insurance estimates flood insurance program after he claimed that virtually all Puerto Ricans in aussie insurance New York automobile insurance institute received food stamps. All those texas state disability insurance efforts were backed by the defense fund’s car insurance specialist board of directors, an active and passionate car insurance ireland northern online quote fast life insurance group that included a young lawyer named Sonia Sotomayor, who this week was chosen by President Obama to join the general contractor insurance california dietitian professional liability insurance country’s highest car insurance for a week court. Ms. Sotomayor’s involvement with the defense fund has so far received scant attention. commercial property insurance But her critics, including some Republican senators who will texas liability car insurance vote on her nomination, have questioned whether she has easy car insurance medicare insurance florida let her ethnicity, life experiences and public advocacy condo insurance creep into her decisions as a judge. It seems inevitable, auto insurance quotes in canada then, that her mbi insurance tenure with home maintenance insurance the defense fund will be scrutinized during her confirmation home insurance in Pennsylvania hearings. Curt Levey, executive director of Committee for Justice, a conservative legal group active in judicial nominations, said that “while it’s mortgage repayment insurance fine to let your Puerto Rican heritage motorcycle insurance requirements influence — or any heritage travel insurance online quote for that matter — car insurance no claim bonus influence your positions when you’re on a board, it’s quite a different story when you’re a portugal insurance judge, and I wonder whether she knows the difference.” Of course, it aetna life insurance company is not as if a lawyer and judge with a history of involvement in racial issues has not made it onto manufacturing liability insurance the castle insurance Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall, a fierce advocate for racial massachusetts insurance rates justice as a lawyer for the N.A.A.C.P., sailed onto the auto insurance in Jacksonville highest street rod insurance bench in the insurance life policy uk 1960s. The White House, in homeowners insurance company ratings a statement, emphasized Judge Sotomayor’s experience car insurance quote uninsured issuing more than 3,000 decisions from the bench and played down her influence on the board, saying that staff attorneys chubb auto insurance handled the cases. The White House also said that the case sailboat insurance involving minority police officers had its origins in litigation pda insurance that predated her arrival minnesota life insurance company on auto insurance club the board. Founded in 1972, the Puerto hurricane insurance rates Rican Legal Defense international health insurance companies and Education Fund, which recently changed its name environmental liability insurance to LatinoJustice PRLDEF, is a contents insurance broker public-interest law group with its own long record of civil rights battles. Ms. Sotomayor joined its board in 1980 when she two car insurance was a young life insurance needs calculator cheapest house building insurance prosecutor in young lady car insurance Manhattan and fresh out of renters insurance seattle Yale Law School. It was low income dental insurance full of young, idealistic Latino lawyers business insurance virginia like her who permanent health insurance were eager to make a mark. “She just believed in the mission,” Luis camper van insurance Alvarez, a former chairman of its board, said of Ms. Sotomayor. “This was a highly refined group of individuals who came from the premier academic institutions. It construction liability insurance was car cost insurance uk mortgage life insurance quote almost like Camelot. short period car insurance It was a wonderful growth period.” But geovera earthquake insurance Ms. Sotomayor stood out, frequently meeting with the legal staff to vps vision insurance review family dental plan insurance california mobile home insurance the affordable healthcare insurance status of cases, several former members said. And so across her 12 years on the insurance premium financing board — new jersey renters insurance she americo insurance left emergency medical insurance travel when nj insurance rates she was appointed a home insurance uk federal judge maryland auto insurance in 1992 — flight travel insurance she played an active role as the insurance car travelers defense fund staked out aggressive stances on connecticut dental insurance issues like compare home insurance quotes police brutality, the death penalty and voting rights. The board 1st quote bike insurance monitored all litigation casualty auto insurance undertaken by the fund’s lawyers, and a number of those lawyers said Ms. Sotomayor was an involved and ardent supporter of best annual travel insurance their various liability insurance agent legal efforts during her time with the group. Its efforts equine insurance companies helped bring bilingual education to public schools around the country. In 1981, the fund california health and dental insurance filed a lawsuit that car breakdown cover insurance uk prompted a federal court, health insurance counseling on the eve of the city’s primary elections, to block voting in New York City. The suit, supported by Ms. Sotomayor and the rest jackson national insurance of the board, alleged that the new marine life insurance City Council district boundaries diminished the influence of minority voters. “It was a stunning victory,” recalled Cesar A. Perales, insurance newsletter the defense fund’s president and general counsel, noting that the home owners warranty insurance entire board embraced the effort. “Imagine you car canadian insurance online quote wake up and individual dental and vision insurance are going canada car insurance online quotes new york state dental insurance to vote and the headlines tell you, ‘No Election Today.’ ” Ms. Sotomayor was part of a three-person committee of the board that recommended in 1981 that the fund oppose the bradford and bingley car insurance reinstitution of the death penalty in New York State, according to american classic car insurance board minutes from that time. “Capital punishment is associated with evident international student travel insurance racism in our society,” the panel wrote. “It benz car insurance mercedes creates inhuman psychological burdens for acumus insurance the offender and expatriate car insurance his/her decreasing life insurance family.” Not every effort was a success. The lawsuit against the Reagan administration official, for example, was dismissed, and some former fund officials concede that publicity may have been a motivating factor in filing the suit. One of the legal defense fund’s most ameriplan dental insurance important suits charged that a Police Department promotional auto insurance deductible exam discriminated against minority candidates. It was filed on behalf travel insurance cancer government long term care insurance do i need liability insurance of property insurance portugal the Hispanic guaranteed acceptance life insurance Society of the New York js insurance police. The rbc travel insurance exams, the group charged, car insurance in Nevada did not really measure the ability to critical insurance perform in a more senior position, medical insurance in Virginia and were yielding unfair results: Too many whites were doing well, and canada online auto insurance too many Hispanics australian pensioners insurance and African-Americans were healthy pets insurance not. “We saw the lawsuit as a vehicle to level the playing field,” said automobile insurance comparisons Mr. Perales. “It’s important to understand that canada car insurance quotes online she and the rest of the board, in that context, shared the tool insurance philosophy that we had global travel insurance to remove the pacific care health insurance barriers to the advancement of Latinos.” The suit resulted in equine horse insurance a car insurance houston settlement with the city that produced greater numbers of renters insurance miami promotions direct insurance pet uk to sergeant for buy disability insurance suv insurance Latino and fifth wheel insurance African-American officers. Some white officers, however, felt that the settlement was unfair. travel insurance caribbean They said that many white officers had bank owned life insurance outscored their Hispanic and African-American illinois car insurance quote counterparts, yet were not allowed to fill the spots because of magellan health insurance quotas. They sued, and their case, Marino v. Ortiz, reached the Supreme Court, where it failed by a 4-to-4 affordable insurance rate vote in sample insurance policy 1988. Two decades later, as a federal appellate judge, Ms. Sotomayor farmers auto insurance car insurance in Hawaii was auto insurance in canada again federated national insurance forced by insurance trainer a volatile case to confront the issue of promotion tests and race. She and her colleagues on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit were jukes insurance asked to review a ruling on a claim by white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., metropolitan direct property and casualty insurance company that they had term life insurance leads lost promotions because of their race — even though they had chamber of commerce group insurance performed well on the Fire Department’s tests. Judge Sotomayor voted to affirm the lower court’s contents insurance rented property dismissal of the case, and pc travel insurance her ruling is behind some of the most intense debate about her selection. Mr. Levey said that the employment discrimination motorcycle insurance cover case filed by the defense fund on behalf of Hispanic police car insurance quote oregon superannuation insurance officers raised questions about accidental death insurance Judge Sotomayor’s credibility in the New business insurance premiums Haven case. “It columbian mutual life insurance company adds to the conviction insurance needs that this was not accidental, and that she had a very arizona homeowners insurance specific agenda here.”

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