talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

In the wake of Sandra Day O'Connor's announcement of her resignation from the Court, I read this on slate.com about potential nominees:

Other names that float in the ether include the more reliably conservative Emilio Garza of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and Miguel Estrada, who is currently waiting to hear whether he's won a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. [Correction: Nov. 26, 2002: A shout-out to the fact-checking behemoth that is our Fray, specifically to ShilohGun, first to point out that I was mistaken in parroting the oft-repeated claim that President Bush wants to appoint the "first Hispanic justice" to the high court. There's already been one: Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1932-1938. Cardozo--of Portuguese-Jewish descent--may well have been the first Hispanic justice, depending on who you consult; some Hispanic organizations classify Portuguese-Americans as Hispanic, and many others do not.]

I have really, really serious doubts that Benjamin Cardozo would have described himself as "Hispanic." I wonder what percentage of people who would describe themselves as being Sephardic Jews would also describe themselves as Hispanic. I'm going to have to reread portions of Andrew Kaufman's Cardozo biography to gather more info.

I guess the bottom-line question is this: Do we call someone Hispanic (or insert another ethnic or cultural descriptor here) even if the person himself wouldn't have done so?

If you want more amusing tidbits related to O'Connor's departure from the Court, Underneath Their Robes, the Article III Groupie's blog, is a much better source than Slate.

Back to (bar prep) work: I've finished three essays this morning and am doing a practice performance test for three hours this afternoon. And if I want to make my start time, I'd better stop typing and eat lunch...now.