Among the material release this week by the White House is the disclosure that Judge Sonia Sotomayor belong to a private women’s-only group. The membership raises an interesting question given the controversies in the past over nominees who belong to men-only club. Should the standard be different for women or should exclusive club membership no longer be an issue in nominations?
The Sotomayor documents also reveal that her controversial comment about Latina judges giving superior opinions to white males was not a one time slip — but used repeatedly by her in speeches, here.
Sotomayor agreed to join the Belizean Grove — the female reaction to an equally secretive all-male club called the Bohemian Grove. It is a fascinating dilemma. Feminists would like object to a nominee who belonged to the Bohemian Grove, but this nominee joined a female club designed on the model of the gender-discriminatory club.
The Belizean Grove has about 125 high-ranking members and is based out of New York.
The group describes itself as “a constellation of influential women who are key decision makers in the profit, nonprofit and social sectors; who build long term mutually beneficial relationships in order to both take charge of their own destinies and help others to do the same.”
The late Chief Justice Rehnquist was attacked for having a restrictive covenant in his deed, though he insisted that he knew nothing about it, here.
Liberals insisted that Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV, a Bush nominee for the trial court, should be denied confirmation over his belonging to a club with a discriminatory past and only one known black member, here.
Nominee Vaughn R. Walker was also opposed on the basis of his membership in an all-men club. He was eventually confirmed after passing through the committee with heavy opposition.
Reagan appointees were also opposed on the basis of discriminatory clubs like Francis A. Keating 2d.
Notably, one of Clinton’s high-ranking nominees was opposed for membership in a racially exclusive club. Indeed, when Eleanor D. Acheson joined the club it did not grant female members full rights.
What is fascinating about this latest story is that Sotomayor has a profile that would normally not thrill liberals. Not only does she belong to a discriminatory club, but she voted against discrimination claims in 78 out of 96 cases. I happen to agree with many of those rulings, but there is a question of the response of some of these same groups if this were another nominee with this voting record and such a membership. As I have noted in my criticism of both the attacks from the left and right (as well as my review of Sotomayor’s decisions), there is a disconnect between the rhetoric and record of this nominee from both sides. I do not believe that Sotomayor’s record shows bias. Indeed, I find it quite impressive in a lack of bias. Moreover, her voting record should be welcomed by conservatives in a number of respects. If she continues to vote as a justice as she did as an appellate judge, the left will lose ground with her nomination in some important areas. Nevertheless, this nomination continues to be argued on the basis of robotic soundbites from groups on both the left and right — often in direct contradiction of their earlier positions.
For the full story, click here.
That is the first time I have heard the loud-mouthed Mr. Mark Levin and I will try to make it my last time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0KWKVvjCEw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fhotair%2Ecom%2Farchives%2F2009%2F06%2F05%2Fmark%2Dlevin%2Daudio%2Dtearful%2Dmilitary%2Dwife%2Drips%2Dobamas%2Dcairo%2Dspeech%2F&feature=player_embedded
Military wife fed up with obama
Four-Star General Ann Dunwoody Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command, is/was a member of the Belizean Grove.
Therefore, because she is a “B-Grover” she should resign her U.S. Army commission immediately. The disgrace of it all!
“She is the first woman in U.S. military and uniformed service history to achieve a four-star officer grade, receiving her fourth star on 14 November 2008.”
“Gen. Dunwoody participated with First Lady Michelle Obama in a forum for *promising girls* in Washington, D.C. public schools in March 2009.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_E._Dunwoody
She went to work for Aeropostale, Inc.
I’m not sure if Mindy is still a member, or if she still lives in NY.
Well then, to which All-Girls Country Club did she transfer? My AAA ratings for all things VS are fully transferable, without prejudice.
FFLEO,
I’m pretty sure Mindy left Victoria’s Secret in 2007.
Still give them a AAA rating? :>)
Yes Joe, the original site linked to had some terrible Belizean bongo music and I exited quickly.
Your link provided all of the information on membership I required to give this All-Gals Club my Triple-AAA Rating:
Membership:
Mindy Meads – President & CEO, *Victoria’s Secret* Direct;
Why would the Girl Scouts be okay? If girls scouts are different in part because girls have special qualities when growing up that warrant it, I’m unsure why women business leaders can not be of the same variety.
In fact, seriously, where does this lead us? If Justice Alito belonged to an Italian professional association, would that be a problem? Not for me.
The link doesn’t appear to be right. This seems to be better:
http://www.belizeangrove.com/
As to soundbites, comparing this to joining a racially exclusive white club doesn’t help too much. Is a club set up in answer to a male exclusionary one akin to keeping blacks from buying a property? To compare the two baldly is a bit much. What if instead of going to Cardinal Spellman, she went to an old girl’s Catholic High School. Would she support discrimination too akin to those who were sent to all white private schools?
And, there are various stories, including in major media like the NYT, that provide more nuance to her actual judicial philosophy and decisions.
Mike S
YOu wrote:
When Jews were barred from many institutions, like Country Clubs and hotels, their response was to form institutions of their own.
me: that’s right and in fact it’s where Groucho Marx’s famous comment, “I’d never want to belong to any club that would have me as a member” comes from. He was denied membership in the swank LA Country Club so he and some other Jews formed one of their own. Difference is they did not make it an all Jewish club. That was during a time when Jews could not buy property in San Marino, Laguna’s Emerald Bay, La Jolla, Holmby Hills and went on to make their own suburban meccas in Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica and anyone who could afford to buy homes in those areas did. They were not restricted to Jews.
Of course I grew up in that part of LA, where there were two country clubs across the street from one another. We belonged to the jewish one. Now both are equally Jewish and non-Jewish although I think that the formerly Non-Jewish one has more Jews now that the old Jewish one. Confused? yeah. metoo.
if Sotomayor belonged to any all-girl club other than the Girls Scouts or an all girl rock band then this is the same kind of discrimination that we like to accuse the rich white male power base of using to protect its interests at the cost of others.
This is a really interesting piece on the Bohemian Club. It’s worth checking out.
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/bohemian_grove_spy.html
Former president Clinton on the Bohemian Club:
“The Bohemian club! Did you say Bohemian club? That’s where all those rich Republicans go up and stand naked against redwood trees right? I’ve never been to the Bohemian club but you oughta go. It’d be good for you. You’d get some fresh air.”
Here’s the CNN video link
The whole wikipedia page for the bohemian grove is an entertaining read, Nixon has some choice quotes which I’ll spare the other commenters.
From a purely amateur conspiracy theorist perspective this is hilarious. We’re all for equal opportunity secret societies to get wackos worked up over.
Mike A.,
I did not state tht I had a problem with any of her legal decisions, or that I noted anything “worrisome”; merely that her judicial decision making should be the focus instead of the petty issues, such as belonging to an exclusive group.
Mr. Byrne, Please give me an example of a decision of Judge Sotomayor’s that you find worrisome and the legal basis for your concern. It’s always much more useful to discuss specific, rather than general, issues.
Let us think of this for moment. – You call yourselves freemen. You boast of your liberty and independence. You suppose yourselves to be protected in your person and property by safeguards and guarantees which nothing can take away. What are these safeguards and guarantees? You answer, “In the law of the land and the constitution which is over me”; you say, “My property cannot be taken from me, nor my person or my good name injured, because the law protects me, and that even the Legislature is powerless to injure me by bad laws, because the Constitution of the State stretches its aegis over me.” But do you reflect that the laws and the Constitution are only and mean only what the Judge says they are and mean, and that if he chooses to pervert them and misinterpret them your boasted security is gone in an instant? This cannot be otherwise: the law must have an interpreter, and that interpreter is the Judge. The law can speak only by the lips of the Judge. Otherwise it is silent and non-existent; and therefore your final and ultimate safeguard and security is the Judge. If he is fearless true, upright, and independent you are free and safe. If he is false subservient or partial you have no more freedom or security than the subjects of the Sultan on the Bosporus. -JAMES C. CARTER, Carnegie Hall, October 1898
I’m much more concerned with her judicial decisions than any of the petty nonsense.
Will she be a good judge? -Only time will tell. Is she qualified? -Yes.
FFL,
Hilarious!
Thank you.
Second. Total non-issue.
This is not an issue at all for me.
Okay, if Soto was a Blue Bird—or emphatically, if she was ever a “Brownie”(ifin’ ya know what I mean)—she must be roundly rejected, especially by all of the ‘real’ men of the U.S. Senate.
I mean, what’s the world a’comin’ to, we caint have little girls like this all growed-up becomin’ powerful women “lesbos”. We white guys might lose our patriarchy and we all have knowned for a fact that an all-Girl Scouts-type tribe breeds anti-men Amazons! Need proof—well, Soto aint never had no babies and she could not stay married, proof perfect! She aint a ‘real’ woman, I tells ye.
And now through govmit decipherment, we larned she belongs to an all-girly club, scandalous, call Hoover’s FB & I and ware-tap hern’ phone lines, videotape hern’ bedroom for evidence of male cross-dressin’ and sich subversive, Anti-Mercan activities. Geo. Bush was ‘write’ and so miss-understood.
See, our ‘four fathers’ done told us that lettin’ women vote was the disastrous camel’s nose under the all-male tent…
Man, what is happening to humanity?! I am thoroughly ashamed of our governmental representatives who live by the foul words of the uneducated losers–Rush n’ Gleen–who failed at everything they ever did in real life but became illicitly drugged radio and T.V. commentators and the real leaders of the Republican Party. That goes for the ‘left-wing nuts’ as well.
Unless she is determined to be a pinko-commie conspirator, the U.S. Senate must confirm Ms. Sotomayor as the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
When Jews were barred from many institutions, like Country Clubs and hotels, their response was to form institutions of their own. The barring of women from various clubs and institutions for years led to the formation of parallel institutions. Big deal. We are now down to the “everything but the kitchen sink” smearing of the nominee. Honestly, I don’t know if she would have been my preferred pick, because she seems farther towards the center than I would have the next justice be. However, her qualifications far surpass those of Roberts, Alito and Thomas (Scalia has shown himself to be a hypocrite whatever depth he might have been perceived as having) and so she deserves to skate through the advise and consent process.