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October 04, 2005

Supreme deception?

Normally the personnel changes of courts warrant little international attention, but the choice of Harriet Miers seems to have struck a chord in much of the Latin American press.

In spite of the fact that President Bush has stated that he thinks Miers "extremely qualified" for the position of Supreme Court justice, Mexican daily El Universal cites complaints relating to her lack of experience, especially in light of the prominent Hispanic candidates in the American judiciary who could have been chosen.

Citing representatives from two prominent Latino advocacy groups, the paper characterizes a sense of disbelief in the community. "This is like a slap in the face of the Hispanic judges who have served in high distinction on the courts," says Raul Yzaguirre of the the National Council of La Raza.

Mexican-American news site La Opinión, meanwhile, situates this discussion as "deception" on the part of an administration that had once considered raising Florida Senator Mel Martinez (Cuban-American) or Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez (Mexican-American) to the high court. This line of reasoning appears to be that it little matters about the ideological suasion of a judicial candidate, important because most American Latinos do not identify themselves as political conservatives.

This story ends on a foreboding note for an administration that is currently in the firing line between ceaseless calls for border tightening and a rising class of malleable Latino voters: It quotes a LULAC lawyer as saying with this move "[the president] risks angering one of the fastest growing electorates in the country."

Posted October 4, 2005 06:12 PM

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