Experience does matter on court

I am tempted to take a vacation from the news. I hate saying that. I write for a newspaper. The last straw is the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

The first 24 hours after the nomination gave me facts which yielded much to chew over. Then the usual suspects who comment on every political event weighed in. It was all so predictable. 

The controversy over Sotomayor has centered on one statement made not in a legal decision but in a speech. She said something to the effect that a woman with her experience would make a better decision than a white male. This one sentence has been analyzed endlessly in ways that produce more heat than light. It makes me want to turn off the radio, take a sledge hammer to the TV, and take the paper directly from my front walk to the recycle bin.

What do we all know already without having to be told by people paid to tell us what to think? We all know that our political and religious views and approaches to life have been shaped by our experiences. None of us believes that had we been born in remotest China we would think the way we do or if we had been switched at birth with a child from a dramatically different background we would be exactly the same person we are today.

There is some core person who has gifts and abilities, tics and deficits, and an essence that can’t quite be captured by analyzing our DNA or a summary of our experiences. Our mystery defies simple explanations and influences our decisions about everything from legal briefs to which cereal to buy. That is why there are nine justices, not one. One person with one set of experiences, DNA and idiosyncrasies won’t do. Usually it is better if each of those nine has a broad range of influences and experiences.

Clearly there are wise people who barely left home. Emily Dickinson comes to mind. There are fools who have had rich opportunities to learn. But I have seen in my own classrooms how students learn from each other when given the chance to tell their stories. I remember how quiet the classroom got when the student whose family came here from Latin America told of their journey and hardships. The listeners saw a face behind the news stories and compared their own challenges to hers. I read their expressions when the student from a rich family told her story with its peculiar twists and sadness. So, they learned, money does not make life into a song after all. They would have said they knew that, but until she told her story, some of them liked to imagine that if only they had more money, all their problems would vanish. I saw students get to know people whose political and religious views they judged only by nasty caricature before they sat around a table together. I saw pacifists and students planning careers in the military get to know each other. I believe such experiences enrich my students and may make them wiser people whether or not they ever sit on the Supreme Court. They believe that, too, by the time they graduate from this extraordinarily diverse school. Members of the Supreme Court are influenced by not only their experiences and the legal history they have studied; they are influenced by each other. That is a good thing. We don’t much like people who make up their mind without listening to others. “You can’t tell him anything.” “She never listens; you can’t reason with her; it’s like talking to a wall.”

I hope sound judgment will come from the collective efforts of our nine justices. I am glad the framers of our government had the wisdom to insist that the job was going to take nine people, not one or two or three. 

Patricia Hunt, of Staunton, is a chaplain at Mary Baldwin College.