A defect much more troubling than ethnic/racial/gender bias resides in Judge Sotomayor's comment: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." The defect is a lack of logical reasoning.

 

Judge Sotomayor's focus on ethnicity as a discriminating factor certainly is a red flag because it reveals an unacceptable personal bias on an important single issue.

 

But a man cannot have lived the experience of a woman. Thus, her comment demonstrates a lack of logical reasoning because it records her thinking that a man can experience the life of a woman.  Judge Sotomayor's reasoning defect is exponentially worse than any single issue defect, because it is inherently systemic and will infect her decisions on all issues. The ability to think orderly and logically is required to have a better than average chance of making a positive contribution to our republic and its Supreme Court. Evidence of her thinking shows Judge Sotomayor does not have that ability.