Importance of Sotomayor Nomination to Latina/o Voters

Kevin Johnson is cited heavily in this interesting piece by  Carla Marinucci in the San Francisco Chronicle:

President Obama’s pick of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court represents a brilliant political strategy that could bring Latino voters, the nation’s fastest-growing electorate, to the Democratic Party for generations to come, experts say.

The pick is “pathbreaking,” said Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis School of Law, adding that Sotomayor’s potential role as the first Latina on the nation’s highest court is to Latinos like “the appointment of Thurgood Marshall was to African Americans in the 1960s.”

“It’s the sign of inclusion and their coming of age, and I don’t think it will be lost on many Latinos,” said Johnson, the first Latino dean of a UC law school. “You have someone who comes from humble beginnings, so she’ll bring a different perspective. The more perspectives, … the better a decision is likely to be.”

Obama’s naming of Sotomayor, the daughter of a widowed mother and the product of public housing, won raves from women and minority leaders such as Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who called her “a true American success story” who will bring “a common sense of understanding of how the law practically works in the lives of all Americans.” Click here for the rest of the story.

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