Later in the hearing, she told the Committee: "Life experiences enrich the legal opinion. It's the experience that your Committee looks for in terms of what's the background of the judge."
Grossman saw this as a clear faux pas.
"She said that the infamous quote is irrelevant but at the same time tries to make it have great meaning," he said. "Not only should [her race] be put aside, a judge is required to do that by the judicial code of ethics. Beyond that, putting aside such biasis is a moral imperative. Justices should be blind," said Grossman.
Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in Constitutional law at the Cato Institute, agreed, saying that he thought her statements on race and experience were antithetical to an accurate interpretation of the rule of law.
"Everybody entering a courtroom deserves "equal justice under the law" -- an idea dating back to the first democracy in Athens -- rather than having a measure of justice that depends on his or her background, or that of the judge," he said.