“Lack Of Latino Judges Is A Political Time Bomb”: Not!

That’s what Juan Figueroa, president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City, would have you believe in his recent OpEd essay. He argues that because Latinos are underrepresented in the judiciary, the cases involving their interests are often decided against them. “A judge’s race or ethnicity is as critical as her legal experience.” Latinos make up 12.5% of the US population but only 3.8% of the judiciary and this is, Figueroa claims, clearly unfair.

Or is it? He also mentions that the number of Hispanic Americans increased by well over 50% in just the 10 years between census surveys. So it’s also possible that there aren’t enough experienced, qualified Latinos to take that many more judgeships yet. And this argument is very typical of one aspect of what (you knew this was coming, right?) Steven Denbeste has been writing about lately as Transnational Progressivism. In this case, that each group, and especially groups that have been victimized, deserve representation in proportion to their numbers. So if Latinos represent 12.5% of the population, they should have 12.5% of the bench seats. Possibly a few extra to make up for the terrible ways in which they’ve been discriminated against in the past. Further, I would question just how much of a coherent group these people consider themselves to be; I’ve read often enough that plenty of the different national groups that make up the Hispanic world have little desire to be merged into this broader coalition.

Let’s step back a minute, though, and consider that huge jump in population. Where did those (approximately) 11 million new Hispanic Americans come from in just one decade? True, this group does tend to have slightly higher than average birth rates but the vast majority must have been through immigration. So these new people were so well treated in the places they used to live that they voluntarily came here to be treated worse. Somehow I don’t think that’s quite the reason. And Figueroa also mentions the magic words: “undocumented immigrants.” Does he think that just because some people (in this case, but not exclusively, Latinos) were able to evade border controls and physically enter America that they are now entitled to all the rights and privileges of residency and even citizenship? Please.

[Note: I’m going to send a copy of this to Mr. Figueroa, since his email is at the bottom of the column, and see if he wishes to respond.]