Web Letters: The Real Sotomayor

It's very sad that the Republican Party is doing whatever it can to become a minority party for a generation. By crazily going after a superbly qualified judge as they have, all they wind up doing is alienating the overwhelming majority of Americans. President Obama made an excellent choice in choosing Judge Sotomayor.

It is absurd to demean and debase the role that life experience brings to the Court. A women raised in poverty, a minority who has experienced discrimination brings a lifetime of experience to the Court that is welcome and needed. To insinuate that one's religious background, gender, or heritage does not assist the judge in viewing cases is ridiculous. It is to the benefit of the Court and the American people that justices are not all white men or from one religious group and that all of them did not grow up wealthy.

The Supreme Court is the court of last resort, and I am delighted we will have a superb judge with a superior intellect who knows what it's like to be a minority, experience prejudice and work her way up from the bottom to the top of the legal profession. America needs Justice Sotomayor and the unique perspective she brings.

Mark Jeffery Koch

Cherry Hill, NJ