The head of the National Urban League Wednesday praised President Obama’s choice of Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter.  The civil rights and social-justice organization said that the seriousness of the post meant that Obama had a responsibility to nominate a candidate with a history of protecting civil rights, particularly those of people of color. “Judge Sotomayor appears to be an eminently qualified judge with the intellectual heft, strong record and common touch that is needed in a Supreme Court justice,” Urban League President Marc Morial said in a statement. “We believe the President has made an outstanding choice. …[W]e have a unique responsibility to our constituents to carefully evaluate and influence important national issues, including nominations to the United States federal courts, which play a critical role in protecting the civil rights of African Americans.” He said that Sotomayor had demonstrated a “commitment to upholding civil rights, equality of opportunity and social justice,” and he urged the U.S. Senate to waste no time in confirming her. “We are pleased that the President took such great thought and care in this tremendously important appointment and sought the input of the National Urban League and many other diverse groups,” he added. “The result is the selection of a highly qualified nominee whom we believe will make an outstanding Supreme Court Justice.”

Yes, Barack Obama is the president of all Americans, but African-Americans have a right to expect that he’ll champion the issues that affect them disproportionately, says the National Urban League in its new report. Obama has said that African Americans will benefit when the economy turns around, healthcare is reformed and the nation’s schools are fixed, but “we have to be more specific,” said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the 99-year-old community-based, social- and economic-justice organization. In other words, Morial argues, nobody is suffering from jobless, foreclosures, poor education and lack of health insurance like Black folks. Read the full story.
Should Obama focus more on African Americans, or is he right by targeting general problem areas?