This essay is cross-posted from Tennessee Guerilla Women.  The author’s views are her own, not necessarily those of The New Agenda.

Quote of the Day:

Some lawyers just don’t like to be questioned by a woman
– Judge Guido Calabresi, former dean of Yale Law School, sits on the Second Circuit with Judge Sotomayor.

Judge Calabresi was defending Sonia Sotomayor from the charge that she is a “temperamental” shrew or a woman with a “sharp tongue.”  In an article in the New York Times, Judge Calabresi added that the charge that Sonia Sotomayor is too aggressive to sit on the bench with the boy judges is “sexist, plain and simple.” 

The Times tells us that some lawyers who have appeared before Judge Sotomayor call her a “terror on the bench” who “behaves in an out-of-control manner.”

The boy lawyers say the woman is “difficult,” “temperamental,” and “nasty.”

The article goes on to cite a long list of witnesses to Judge Sotomayor’s entirely professional demeanor, including lawyers, judges, law professor Lawrence H. Tribe, himself, and the White House vetting team.  All disagree with the suggestion that Sonia Sotomayor is a temperamental shrew who is too aggressive to sit on the High Court (with the famously testy Antonin Scalia).

So did the liberal New York Times headline the story, “Sexist Lawyers Attack Judge Sotomayor’? 

Why no.  The sexists at the New York Times headline the story , “Sotomayor’s Sharp Tongue Raises Issues of Temperament.”!

Update:  Some sharp-tongued women let the Times have an earful.  There’s a new headline.  but Google never forgets.

Editor’s note:  While I was loading this article, the Google search page changed to drop one of its references to the original headline.  So I started grabbing screens.  Here’s the Google screen with one headline reference changed, one not:

And here’s the Wall Street Journal’s news feed of the NYT, still showing the original headline: