Maybe it’s the presence of the wise Latina Justice, rather than her opinions, that matters most. Consider my golf experience…
I love golf and have spent countless hours watching, reading, practicing and playing it. As much as I’ve learned over the years, I’m always amazed when I listen to someone like Johnny Miller or Nick Faldo describe a golfer’s swing on television.
Miller and Faldo see things at full speed that I can barely recognize after they’ve explained it to me with the aid of super-slow-motion HD video. Supination? Angles? Inside path? Outside? Too steep? Too shallow? How about that “thump” sound in a bunker? Or how they can tell whether there was grass between the club and ball, whether the shot is fat or thin, by listening to the sound?
The thing is, when it comes to golf, I don’t know even one-tenth of what I don’t know. There are people who know a lot more, and I learn so much just by being in their presence.
That’s exactly how diversity works. It’s not that a group (racial, gender, ethnic, etc.) can only be represented by a member of that group. It’s more likely that non-members may not even know what they don’t know. It’s what they wouldn’t even think about unless someone “more diverse” (in background, experience, point of view) was there.
Justices describe the presence of Thurgood Marshall’s stories as more influential than his single vote on cases. His mere presence in the room altered the trajectory of their deliberations. They had to think about how Thurgood would hear and react to what they might say1:
“‘Marshall could be a persuasive force just by sitting there,’ Justice Antonin Scalia told Juan Williams in an interview for a biography of Justice Marshall, recalling the justices’ private conferences about cases. ‘He wouldn’t have to open his mouth to affect the nature of the conference and how seriously the conference would take matters of race.’”
The same thing applies to the women who have served on the Court. They know stuff that the men simply would never consider. Their mere presence enriched the discussions, at least in certain areas.
BTW, my point is not a new one. For example, see Every Justice Creates a New Court by Linda Greenhouse.
Diversity affects companies the same way. It’s just always better to have a panoply of opinions and experiences. Courts and companies make better decisions that way. Especially when the leader knows how to assemble and manage a good team!
1 The Waves Minority Judges Always Make by the New York Times’ Adam Liptak.
