diversity at work
Sotomayor - first Hispanic Supreme Court justice or not?
It's been widely reported that Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, though a few people (including some TV commentators) have wondered whether Justice Benjamin Cardozo (on the court from 1932-1938) should not in fact be counted as such.
The answer seems to be that Sotomayor would in fact be the first Hispanic, but it also points up the problem inherent in the term Hispanic.
Cardozo, Josh Marshall reports, was of Portuguese ancestry
(Cardozo biographer Andrew Kaufman says that Cardozo "family legend" has them coming from Portugal, but without "firm documentation about the particulars"). Which brings us to the critical question: What sort of ancestry qualifies as Hispanic? There are three strikes against the Cardozo-as-Hispanic thesis, all having to do with the fact that Portuguese natives speak ... Portuguese (rather than Spanish).
keep reading Robert Schlesinger's Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The answer seems to be that Sotomayor would in fact be the first Hispanic, but it also points up the problem inherent in the term Hispanic.
Cardozo, Josh Marshall reports, was of Portuguese ancestry
(Cardozo biographer Andrew Kaufman says that Cardozo "family legend" has them coming from Portugal, but without "firm documentation about the particulars"). Which brings us to the critical question: What sort of ancestry qualifies as Hispanic? There are three strikes against the Cardozo-as-Hispanic thesis, all having to do with the fact that Portuguese natives speak ... Portuguese (rather than Spanish).
keep reading Robert Schlesinger's Thomas Jefferson Street blog
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