re: #319 Occasional Reader

Alito: I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and how my background and my experiences have shaped me… Because when a case comes before me involving, let’s say, someone who is an immigrant — and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases — I can’t help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn’t that long ago when they were in that position.

Sotomayor: “I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that - it’s an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others”

Yeah… huge difference between those quotes.

Alito states that his “background and experiences have shaped him” and also states that in a case involving immigrants he “can’t help but think of [his] own ancestors.”

Sotomayor states that “experiences as women and people of color affect [her] decisions” and that “by our experiences [we] make different choices than others.”

If I’m so obtuse, explain to me what else Alito could have meant with his quote besides “my experiences as a white, male from an immigrant family shaped my judgement.”