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Sotomayor Nomination Raises Questions About How Female Judges View Cases Differently
Following President Obama"s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, the differences between how male and female judges see and rule on cases has come into question, the New York Times reports. Although retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O"Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, often said that a female judge would come to the same decision as a male judge, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said that her perspective on certain cases is different because of her gender.The Times cites two examples, one involving the strip search of a 13-year-old girl -- to which Ginsburg said that her male colleagues could not understand how the girl felt. The second example involves the issue of certain abortion procedures. When deciding about the constitutionality of a federal ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortions, Ginsburg took issue with Justice Anthony Kennedy"s majority opinion that women who undergo the procedure likely would experience attacks of conscience. She responded that Kennedy"s views reflected "ancient notions of women"s place in the family and under the Constitution -- ideas that have long since been discredited."The issue has come up again with Sotomayor"s nomination, specifically regarding her 2001 statement that she "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." The perception that female judges inherently might view cases differently than male judges has raised some concerns even among some female judges who believe it might be true, according to the Times. Judge Judith Kaye, former chief judge of New York state, said that she avoided discussing the issue with others but then accepted the idea that female judges see things differently at times. "To defend the idea that women come out different on some cases, I just feel it," Kaye said, adding, "I feel it to the depths of my soul" because women"s experiences are "just different." Attorney Lawrence Robbins, however, said, "Any person in the real world should be highly reluctant to make these broad generalizations."The most recent study comparing male and female judges found that female judges were more likely to rule in favor of plaintiffs who claim sex discrimination at workplaces. The study also found no differences in cases involving disability law, environmental issues and capital punishment (Lewis, New York Times, 6/3).

New Help To Tackle Children's Communication Problems
A ÷£5million package of measures is being rolled out to help improve services for children and young people with communication problems. A new Communication Champion is also being recruited to raise the profile of these issues, Children"s Secretary, Ed Balls and Care Services Minister Phil Hope announced today.
News of the day
Government Plan Could Sacrifice Equality For Choice In The NHS, UK
In a letter to this week÷“s BMJ, a researcher expresses his concern on how in order to empower NHS patients with choice, the UK government is in danger of sacrificing the principle of equality on which the service was founded.
Mental Health

Protecting The Food Crops Of The Future

Biologists are investigating how to control when plants flower - to help farmers reap a bumper harvest. The University of Leeds team will also investigate whether the flowering process can be made more robust and able to withstand predicted changes in the climate. Professor of Plant Development at the University, Brendan Davies, says: "Flowers are vital to the plant reproduction process as pollination leads to the development of the fruit, where the seeds are found. Everything that we eat comes from flowering plants - even the food that is fed to livestock. This means that the long-term future of the world"s food supply would be greatly enhanced if we could predict and control flowering. Farmers need to be able to plan when their crops should be harvested and so our study has major significance for agriculture." As part of a three-year European project called BLOOM-NET, the research team has been awarded ÷£288,000 through the EU to look into how minute changes in the way genes are expressed in plants can have a huge impact on when they flower. Working with computer modelling experts, the plant scientists will build a digital model that ultimately should be able to predict the impact of changes in genetic structure in the "shoot apical meristem" - a small cluster of just a few cells that eventually produce the entire plant, including its flowers. The model will also calculate the impact of changes in external factors such as climate. Professor Davies says: "Flowers are a plant"s reproductive organs and it is essential for breeding programmes and crop harvests that farmers and breeders are able to predict when flowering will take place. This has been done for centuries by taking note of weather patterns and varying light levels, but we can now improve on these predictions by adding in other factors such as minute changes in genetic make-up. "We now know a great deal about how the genes that control flowers operate. What we want to find out is how the expression of these genes, that is the order in which they are turned on and off, helps to create a flower at a specific time and in specific environmental conditions. It we could predict, or even control this process, then over time we may be able to help farmers improve the quantity and quality of their harvests." Jo Kelly University of Leeds


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