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Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Sotomayor Inserts "Undocumented Immigrant" Into SCOTUS Opinion

But you knew this day was coming. Playing the empathy card.

From a pleased NY Times:

"In an otherwise dry opinion, Justice Sotomayor did introduce one new and politically charged term into the Supreme Court lexicon.

Justice Sotomayor’s opinion in the case, Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, No. 08-678, marked the first use of the term “undocumented immigrant,” according to a legal database. The term “illegal immigrant” has appeared in a dozen decisions."

Yes, but “illegal immigrant” doesn't make everyone feel all warm & fuzzy, especially when dealing with dry case law on obscure rulings about adverse attorney-client rulings.

"Undocumented immigrant" is found on page 5 of the ruling:
"According to Carpenter’s complaint, his termination came after he informed a member of Mohawk’s human resources department in an e-mail that the com-pany was employing undocumented immigrants. At the time, unbeknownst to Carpenter, Mohawk stood accused in a pending class-action lawsuit of conspiring to drivedown the wages of its legal employees by knowingly hiring undocumented workers in violation of federal and state racketeering laws."

Did you catch that? The immigrants were "undocumented", but, apparently, other employees were "legal," according to Sotomayor. So, some distinctions are made, but the differences must be minimized in order to promote that 'social justice' agenda.

A wise Latina judge will generally make better decisions than a white male judge.