The Two Faces of Sonia

How to reconcile Judge Sonia Sotoymayor's opening statement today regarding judicial impartiality with her previous remarks to a group of women lawyers?

In her prepared statement for the Senate Judiciary, Sotomayor said "I seek to strengthen both the rule of law and faith in the impartiality of our justice system.” So far, so good.

But consider what Sotayor said on April 30, 1999 to the Women’s Bar Association Of The State Of New York:

[T]here is ‘no objective stance but only a series of perspectives… [N]o neutrality, no escape from choice’… in judging, I further accept that our experiences as women will in some way affect our decisions. In short ... ‘th[e] aspiration to impartiality … is just that an aspiration rather than a description because it may suppress the inevitable existence of a perspective…’”

That's moral relativist double-speak for the judge gets to do whatever she wants.

So much for impartiality and the rule of law.