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Blitzer: Here's what she said back in 2001, and I'll put it up on the screen: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

That's generating some commotion out there.
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Sotamayor's comment is widely being quoted (and sometimes misquoted or mis-paraphrased) out of its context. She was speaking specifically about cases that dealt with issues of racial, ethnic, or gender discrimination.   
In that same context, she made a point of acknowledging that white, non-Hispanic men had often made good judgments in such cases -- that one does not HAVE to be a woman or minority to be fair in dealing with such cases.

There are a lot of qualifications in that statement.   She "would hope" that a "wise" Latina woman would be MORE LIKELY to render a fair judgment in such cases dealing with discrimination than someone whose whole experience had been as a member of the dominant societal group (white males).

And it would be very naive to think that white men do not bring the perspectives of their own life experience to bear in their judicial deliberations.