Sotomayor and Affirmative Action

Is Judge Sonia Sotomayor a product of grinding poverty and beneficiary of affirmative action, and now a victim of its unintended consequences? Or has she instead cynically embraced affirmative action and romanticized her past as a way to further her judicial career?

As the confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee continues for Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's pick for the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, with a lifetime appointment at stake, a review of the evidence shows she has changed her position on affirmative action and fictionalized her past to serve her own purposes.

First, she was never in the target audience affirmative action was designed to help. Second, while in school she vehemently disavowed affirmative action as playing any part in her educational advancement. Third, as her career played out on an increasingly public stage, she rebranded herself as "a perfect affirmative action baby" and an ardent supporter of racial quotas willing to engage in activist judging—and even ethically questionable judging—to advance that agenda.