When President Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his Supreme Court nominee today, he said he had sought a candidate who would bring, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, not just logic but experience …

“… experience being tested by obstacles and barriers, by hardship and misfortune; experience insisting, persisting, and ultimately overcoming those barriers. It is experience that can give a person a common touch and a sense of compassion, an understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live.”

Early press reporting on the nomination has interpreted Obama’s comments as referring to Sotomayor’s status as a woman and a Latina, the daughter of Puerto Rican immigants who grew up in a housing project in the Bronx.

But Sotomayor’s life journey also includes at least one other noteworthy aspect. She is a person with a disability: Type One diabetes, diagnosed when she was eight years old. People with diabetes are generally covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Sotomayor’s diabetes prompted renewed discussion among internet commentators about whether her health status should be considered when assessing her suitability for the high court post. See:

• A matter of health for SCOTUS nominee — April Fulton, NPR’s health blog
  
• Stop worrying about Sonia Sotomayor’s diabetes — Kate Daily on Newsweek’s ‘The Human Condition’ blog

In an interview with the New York Daily News in 1998, Sotomayor said her disability shaped her career choice. People with diabetes weren’t allowed to become detectives like her hero Nancy Drew, she said she was told, so she decided to become a lawyer instead.

See also:

American Diabetes Association applauds Sotomayor’s nomination — press release. The nomination …

… “affirms that people with diabetes should not be discriminated against and each person with diabetes should be judged based on his or her merits, not on stereotypes or misinformation about diabetes.

… As this process moves forward, the diabetes community expects that Judge Sotomayor’s nomination will be evaluated based on her qualifications and years of experience – and not her diabetes. To evaluate her in any other way would be a disservice to the United States.”

Earlier posts here and here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 12:19 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, Obama administration, diabetes, discrimination, law, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post