Today, the New York Times tore into Donald Trump's racist attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Instead of

attacking Curiel for his association with a pro-illegal immigration organization, Trump went

directly at Curiel's ethnicity. You'll remember, he claimed that his Mexican parentage, who was born in

Indiana, made him unfit to serve as a judge on the Trump University case. Here is the New York Times,

quote,

federal judges have repeatedly and emphatically refused to recuse themselves from cases because of their race or ethnicity. These rulings were driven by two realizations. Ethnically based

challenges would reduce every judge to a racial category, which would be racist, and such

challenges would make judges vulnerable to recusal motions for reasons of race,

ethnicity, gender, or religion in every case that came before them. Once it started, the ethnic

cleansing of the court system could be made to apply to any unpopular group at any time. Mr. Trump is

essentially arguing that his own bigoted attitude toward Mexicans has disqualified a respected

jurist from hearing a court case in which he is a

defendant. Okay, that's basically right, but we must ask. Did the New York Times just realize

that discrimination for or against people on the basis of race is racist? See, here's the thing. I understand

why people like me, people on the right, are upset with Trump. We think that ethnicity and race

are completely irrelevant to your quality as a human being. We don't care whether your parents

were Mexican or Irish or Armenian or Jewish. We only care whether you're a good human being

doing good things. The left doesn't hold by that same standard. The left constantly suggests

white cops can't make objectively decent police decisions in minority communities. And when

President Obama nominated now Justice Sonia Sotomayor, news quickly broke of a lecture she'd given in 2001,

in which she labeled herself better qualified for the judiciary because she was, quote, a wise

Latino woman. This is racism. Ethnicity doesn't make you a better judge, but it was one of the chief qualifiers for that same New York Times, which defended Sotomayor's comments and excoriated her critics. Here's what the Times wrote all the way back then, quote, the first Hispanic nominee to the court is being called racist. She's being attacked as not smart enough, as to abrasive, a description often applied to women who speak their minds in public life.

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