To focus for a sec on the gender portion of the “wise Latina” remark:

One of the things that convinced me that feminists were not interested in facts was their denial of differences between the sexes. That Sotomayor acknowledges the existence of differences, and admits that those differences may be reflected in the rulings of judges, I saw as a breath of fresh air. I believe she sees allowing the differences to be reflected in rulings from the bench as something to be avoided, but denying their existence does not help to avoid them.

The same concept applied to race gets a different reaction. I think it is racist to say there are differences between the races the same way there are differences between the genders. But it is silly to deny there are differences in the experiences of humans of different races. And again, the denial of those differences does not help in the effort to be impartial on the bench.