When President Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice of the U.S. Supreme Court last week, media from around the country called on UC Davis experts for comment. UC Davis faculty gave more than two dozen interviews to reporters from Minnesota Public Radio, The Los Angeles Times, La Opinion, The Nation and other national and regional outlets in the first 48 hours following Obama’s announcement.

Below, four campus experts share their views on the historic nomination:

Cruz Reynoso

Like Judge Sonia Sotomayor, I was the first Latino/Latina to be appointed to a supreme court — I to the California Supreme Court, she to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is important that a court have justices who come from different experiences. Justice Sotomayor brings her background to bear on the important issues that come before the court. Justices learn from one another.

I recall a case dealing with the constitutional right to an interpreter for those accused of a crime. My experience with such procedures convinced the court of the constitutional right to such interpreters. It is such diversity that gives strength to a Supreme Court ruling. While other justices had different life experiences, I feel confident I was the only justice who had been a farm worker, just as Judge Sotomayor will no doubt be the first to have lived in tenements. At the Supreme Court, the life experience of each justice comes into play in deciding constitutional issues which affect the lives of all Americans.

Cruz Reynoso is the Boochever and Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality at the School of Law. He served on the state Supreme Court from 1982 to 1987.

Carole Joffe

In the aftermath of the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, some supporters of abortion rights have expressed apprehension about the nominee’s position on abortion. Judge Sotomayor has a scant record on the abortion issue and has not weighed in publicly on the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade. In a few cases, she actually has ruled against abortion rights advocates. But these decisions were made on technical grounds of legal precedent, and tell us nothing about her own views on abortion.

During the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama stated his support of abortion on a number of occasions and pledged to nominate to the Supreme Court only those who would uphold Roe. (In contrast, John McCain announced his belief that Roe should be overturned).

Personally, I take President Obama at his word with respect to this pledge. He has made it very clear, in both his campaign and presidency, that he hopes to find common ground on this divisive issue by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, and therefore the number of abortions — but that he understands abortion must remain legal. Sonia Sotomayor, if confirmed, will not be the fifth vote to overturn Roe.

Carole Joffe, a sociology professor, is the author of the forthcoming book, Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us.

Kevin Johnson

Judge Sotomayor was the first Puerto Rican woman to serve as a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge. If confirmed, she would be the first Latina (or Latino, for that matter) on the Supreme Court. Her appointment would, like that of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the Court, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman, add an important — and currently missing — perspective to the court. Her appointment, like these other historic “firsts,” would also symbolize the full inclusion of a group in American society that has not always been fully included.

To add to her wide range of professional experience, Judge Sotomayor has a compelling personal story. A product of the Bronx housing projects, her father died when she was nine, and she was diagnosed with diabetes at about the same time. Raised by her mother, Judge Sotomayor reportedly calls her daily. Her inspiring life, much like the president’s, is a truly American story of ascending to great heights through grit and determination.

Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis School of Law, is the first Hispanic to head a UC law school.

Vikram Amar

Judge Sotomayor has been criticized for making the following statement at a 2001 conference in Berkeley: “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.”

While her phrasing was not as careful as it perhaps should have been, Judge Sotomayor’s point — that a jurist’s race, ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic track record and other factors all shape her experience and thus the perspective she brings to the task of judicial interpretation of the law — is not really all that controversial.

As the Supreme Court itself observed in one famous case involving the need for both women and men on juries: “To insulate the courtroom from either may not in a given case make an iota of difference. Yet a flavor, a distinct quality is lost if either sex is excluded.”

Thus, even though we do not know exactly what observations or insights might be missing when we lack demographic diversity, we have Supreme Court precedent — something for which conservatives profess reverence — making clear that the absence of multiple “flavors” makes the intellectual feast less satisfying.

Vikram Amar is professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Law.