Tom, I noticed that, too, about the Sotomayor hearings. There was a definite assumption that the conservative white male Supreme Court justices offered facts, whereas everyone holding another viewpoint had only opinions.

Um. Right.

I found myself thinking about “the unmarked state” during the Sotomayor Supreme Court confirmation debate (if we can dignify it by calling it a debate). One of her critics’ premises seemed to be that the rulings of white males was the obvious default state that every justice should aspire to, & the fear seemed to be that Justice Sotomayor would file some kind of weird otherworldly set of opinions.

Which of course the rest of the Roberts court would never do. Nothing but sane policy from that majority.