Egypt: No to Female Judges

From the Times of India:

The council of state’s association voted by an overwhelming majority against appointing women as judges in the council, Egypt’s MENA news agency said.

Three-hundred and eighty judges took part in the general assembly and voted, with 334 rejecting the appointment of females to judicial posts in the country and 42 agreeing, with four abstentions.

Egypt’s supreme judicial council, which has jurisdiction over criminal and civil courts, selected 31 women in 2007, who were later appointed by presidential decree. But the decision angered conservatives who said women were not suited for the role.

Sotomayor - Confirmed

From the Huffington Post:

Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation Thursday as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, a history-making Senate vote that capped a summer-long debate heavy with ethnic politics and hints of high court fights to come.

The third woman in court history, she'll be sworn in Saturday as the 111th justice and the first nominated by a Democrat in 15 years.

The Senate vote was 68-31 to confirm Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, with Democrats unanimously behind her but most Republicans lining up in a show of opposition both for her and for the president's standards for a justice.

The 55-year-old daughter of Puerto Rican parents was raised in a South Bronx housing project and educated in the Ivy League before rising to the highest legal echelons, spending the past 17 years as a federal judge. She watched the vote on TV at a federal courthouse in New York City, among friends and colleagues.

Sotomayor Quits Womens' Group

From Kenneth P. Vogel @ the Seattle PI:

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor resigned from an elite women's-only group Friday under pressure from Republican senators who suggested her membership could violate judicial codes barring judges from belonging to discriminatory groups.

In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering her nomination, Sotomayor reiterated her belief that the group, the Belizean Grove, "does not practice invidious discrimination and my membership did not violate the Judicial Code of Ethics, but I do not want questions about this to distract anyone from my qualifications and record."

The New York-based group, with about 120 dues-paying members, was little-known until Sotomayor disclosed her membership in a questionnaire submitted earlier this month to the Judiciary Committee.

Founded nearly 10 years ago as the female answer to the Bohemian Grove — a secretive all-male club whose members have included former U.S. presidents and top business leaders — the Belizean Grove's membership includes Army generals, Wall Street executives and former ambassadors.

Sonia Sotomayor

From Yahoo News:

A history-making selection behind him, President Barack Obama is pressing the Senate to quickly confirm federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.

Not so fast, say Republicans.

The GOP faces an uphill battle in defeating the New York-born daughter of Puerto Rican parents, but Republicans are promising a thorough and perhaps lengthy hearing process that scrutinizes her record and judicial philosophy.

Sotomayor's personal story and her academic and legal credentials earn her respect from all quarters, but conservatives see plenty to criticize in her rulings and past statements. They describe her as a judicial activist who would put her feelings above the Constitution.

Sotomayor has said that personal experiences "affect the facts that judges choose to see."

"I simply do not know exactly what the difference will be in my judging," she said in a speech in 2001. "But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage."

Any Republican effort to block Sotomayor's confirmation could be risky for a party still reeling from last year's elections and struggling to gain back lost ground with Hispanics, the fastest-growing part of the population and one that is increasingly active politically.

Obama's Short List

From North Jersey:

President Obama is considering a mix of more than six Supreme Court candidates that is top-heavy with women and Hispanics, a group that features three judges, a governor, his homeland security secretary and his solicitor general.

Among those under consideration are California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood.

Moreno — the sole man on the known group of candidates — is a newer name to emerge. Obama is widely expected to choose a woman for a Supreme Court that has nine members but only one female justice.

US Supreme Court

From the Seattle Times Editorial Opinion:

THE five men who make up the conservative majority of the Supreme Court lose their heads over social issues. They become emotional, irrational, petty. You might even call them the weaker sex.

They could use a few good women to balance them out. But to insist that President Obama nominate a woman, period, is to miss the point. The court's lack of gender diversity relates to a bigger problem: The court lacks a sufficient number of judges who believe the Constitution extends to the ladies.

No question, I'd love to see more women on the court. Their presence is inevitable, since women constitute a critical mass in politics and law.

Still, it's offensive to treat gender as a requirement for Obama's next nominee rather than a plus factor. It's insulting to women, who are hardly interchangeable, and it's unfair to men, plenty of whom are quite capable of "getting it." Far better for Obama to target the court's weakness on equal rights and identify the most persuasive moderate around to help reshape the court's opinions.

Palestine: Female Judges

From Globe & Mail:
"Judge Khuloud al-Faqeeh's biggest fear when she became one of the first two female Palestinian Islamic judges was that men would refuse to stand before her. As in every Arab and Muslim country with the exception of Sudan, only men passed judgment in Islamic courts.

“They expect a man with a beard and a turban,” said Judge al-Faqeeh, smiling wryly from behind her desk as her hand made a circular movement above her cream-coloured satin head scarf.

Considered by many in this male-dominated society to be too emotional to serve as judges, women in Islamic courts were there to receive judgments, not to give them. The results were frequently unfair. But after the appointment of two women judges to Islamic courts in the West Bank last month, Palestinian women have begun to find an understanding ear – and more equitable judgments.

Women across the Muslim world consider the Palestinian women judges a milestone for women's rights. But some disagree, arguing that Islamic law prohibits equality of the sexes."

Female Islamic Judges

From the New Zealand Herald:
"The Islamic courts were among the last male-only bastions in Palestinian society, where women have been presidential candidates, police officers and even suicide bombers.

But Khuloud Faqih, 34, and Asmahan Wuheidi, 31, made history last month when they became the first female Islamic judges in the Palestinian territories.

Across the Arab world, only Sudan has had women judges in Islamic courts, while Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, all relatively progressive states in the region on women's rights, do not.

Muslim courts in the Palestinian Authority rule over family affairs such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody, relying on Islamic jurisprudence rather than secular rules.

Palestinian feminists have praised the female judges but say the move will not make a dramatic change, because the judges still rely on Islamic laws that ultimately favour men."

Deborah

Hebrew Prophetess

Deborah/Debbora was the wife of Lappidoth. She was reputedly the only woman Judge in Israel. Deborah had been endowed with the gift of prophecy - this gave her authority over the tribes of Israel. She was said to sit under a tree between Ramah and Bethel, where people would come for her judgement on many matters. Deborah persuaded Barak to free her people from Canaanite oppression.

She told Barak to gather a great army about him, with which he would defeat the Canaanites. Barak agreed to do so on the proviso that Deborah accompany him. She agreed and further prophecised that it would be a woman who would kill the Cannanite general Sisera. Deborah instructed Barak how to deploy his troops, and when and how to attack the Canaanites. Sisera and the Canaanites were defeated at the Battle of Esdraelon. Sisera fled the battlefield and was killed, by Jael, wife of Heber the Henite, an ally of Canaan.

Following this victory, a long period (40 years) of peace ensued. It may be assumed that Deborah had a prominent role in the affairs of Israel during this time.

~~~ Melisende (first pub: 1998 Women of History)