Sotomayor confirmation reveals the class nature of the proceedings

For socialists, law and justice does not have some divine character or origin. Law and justice in society is nothing but the interests of the class that rules written down and enforced through the state. We live under bourgeois law, laws that are designed to protect and enforce the interests of the capitalist class and the system they govern.

Under feudalism, moneylending and commerce was looked down upon, that law had to be changed.

Reading the report in today's Wall Street Journal on the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor the class nature of law and society in general stands out like a sore thumb. As one commentator said on this blog, all the squabbling between these representatives of capital about Sotomayor's remarks leave out one bias that any candidate for the US Supreme Court must have, a class bias towards the workers of society----all workers.

The whole provedure is such a farce from a worker's point of view. First off, the name Supreme Court, implies a sort of divine character to this body. Why are there no Janitors on it? No nurses?

Then Sotomayor says in response to questions about her allowing emotions rather than legal judgement to influence her decisions that "It is not the heart that compels conclusions in cases, it's the law." "We don't apply feelings to facts" she says. They are afraid the pressure of the Latino workers and all women will influence her. This process does reflect differences of opinion among sections of the capitalist class about how they govern, but in the main it is to determine her allegiance to the class she represents and the so-called "free market."

The hypocrisy of these people. Senator Jeff Sessions, from Alabama (a historical bastion of egalitarian justice perhaps) says that her remark about a "wise Latina" having better judgement on some issues than a white man "goes against the American ideal and oath that a judge takes to be fair to every party."

This is a stunning statement when you think of it? And from a Senator from Alabama! When has the justice system been fair to every party? It has not been fair to workers who are white even, and where was the Supreme Court when blacks were being castrated for trying to excersize the democratic right to vote? We all know the law protects the rich, so the Supreme Court must protect the rich too.

The whole proceeding reveals the discrimination that exists in the ruling class, the resistance of the white racist bourgeosie at the inclusion of another ethnic group and a historically opressed gender in to their ruling clique. Can they trust her? Will the pressure of Latino and women workers influence her, force her to make decisons that harm capitalism?

It also shows how race and gender are secondary. She is sitting in front of these bastards when one of them like Sessions makes the comment he did that most workers regardless of race or religion knows is a lie and says nothing, instead, she does her best to convince them she is safe.

This is the main issue here.