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Sonia Sotomayor Archive

Thursday

6

August 2009

0

COMMENTS

Sotomayor Confirmed

Written by , Posted in The Courts, Criminal Justice & Tort

The Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court by a vote of 68-31.  All Democrats voted yes, while most Republicans voted no.

Although I have serious problems with her performance before the Judiciary Committee (her obfuscation bordered on rank dishonesty), I’m not going to chastise those who decided to vote for her, as there are legitimate debates over the appropriate constitutional role of the Senate when it comes to their responsibility of “advice and consent.” Should they merely enforce a basic level of competence and independence for judges, or should they use their own judicial philosophy as a criteria? I don’t know the answer.

I can see the merits of both sides. On the one hand, Sotomayor is a competent, albeit unimpressive, judge. Her decisions paint her as a mainstream left-liberal on the bench, which is exactly what one would expect the elected left-liberal president to appoint.  It seems to be what the people wanted. From this school of thought, there is little reason to oppose her nomination absent evidence that she would be incapable of acting independently of the other branches, particularly the executive that appointed her.

On the other hand, being a mainstream member of the left-liberal school of jurisprudence still places her well out-of-whack compared to the original constitutional understanding. The constitution is not subject to popular vote, and drifting public opinion that runs counter to its meaning need not, and ought not, be mindlessly heeded.

But that debate never really mattered in this confirmation vote, because only one side was interested in it.  The  other provided a predictable rubber stamp for the President and more than enough to pass her through without any need for honest answers on her part. She will be a predictably liberal vote for the court, but won’t significantly change its make-up.

Tuesday

14

July 2009

0

COMMENTS

Sotomayor Rejects Obama's Judicial Philosophy

Written by , Posted in The Courts, Criminal Justice & Tort

What’s going on here?

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) asked Sonia Sotomayor if she agrees with something Barack Obama said as a senator when deciding to vote against John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

At the time, Obama said: “In those cases, adherence to precedent and rules of construction and interpretation will only get you through the 25th mile of the marathon. That last mile can only be determined on the basis of one’s deepest values, one’s core concerns, one’s broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one’s empathy.”

… “He has to explain what he meant by judging,” Sotomayor said. “Judges can’t explain what’s in their heart — the job of a judge is to apply the law. It’s not the heart that compels conclusions in cases, it’s the law.”

According to Obama, Sotomayor was everything he was looking for in a judge, which means she met his empathy standard.  Now, speaking at her confirmation hearing (under oath?), she has rejected this standard.  Was Obama wrong in his evaluation of her?

No, he was not.  What we are seeing now is a hustle.  Sotomayor knows that Obama’s position, and her own chosen philosophy, is at odds with the proper role of the judiciary.  She knows it and yet continues to put it into action anyway because she doesn’t care about the proper role of the judiciary; she cares about getting to the desired liberal outcomes.  Lying to the Senate Judiciary Committee is just one more step down that road, no more significant to her than her frequent willingness to twist and bend the law to serve a radical ideology.

Wednesday

27

May 2009

0

COMMENTS

Sotomayor Is Good Pick, Bad Judge

Written by , Posted in The Courts, Criminal Justice & Tort

President Barack Obama has announced his replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.  It is going to be Sonia Sotomayor, a judge who embodies not only the American dream, but the President’s stated criteria for what makes a good Supreme Court judge.  Unfortunately, those criteria are misguided and have delivered a judge with a philosophy antithetical to the proper role of the judiciary in a constitutional republic.

The politics of the pick are overwhelmingly positive for the President.  Sonia Sotomayor is a great American story.  She rose from poverty to attend the top law schools in the nation and, today, has been appointed to the highest staiton in her chosen field.  That’s great.  It’s a testament to the pre-Obama America, and that it was never the horrible place that he, and his wife, have made it out to be.

But that’s not the real genuis of the pick.  To put it simply, it’s all about identity politics.  The left is already wrapping her up in her gender/ethnicity to protect her from criticisms on her substantive record.   I say once again, welcome to Obama’s post-racial America, where everything is about race.  Those remaining racists in America, who insist on seeing every event through the distorted goggles of race, celebrate the pick without the slightest consideration to what actually matters on the court: judicial philosophy.  They celebrate it because they think more people are now “represented” on the court.  But the court does not have representatives, it has judges.  Its members are not there to advance interests of constituency groups; they are there to follow the law.  The text of the law does not change based on the ethnic background of the person reading it.

Sonia Sotomayor does not understand this.  She has gone on record not only stating a dangerous judicial philosophy, but one littered with bigoted comments based on leftist identity politics.  In a constitutional republic, the law is made through the people’s representatives in the legislature.  The Executive then carries out that law, and the courts settled disputes based upon it.  There is no room in this system for the courts to make law.  Doing so removes the people from the equation, and thus undermines claims that we are, in fact, a republic.  Yet Sotomayor has made it clear that her view is that the court is a place where policy is made.  Moreover, she thinks she’ll be better at making policy from the bench than a white male, due to her gender and ethnic background.  This rank ignorance of the function of the judiciary is why Sonia Sotomayor must be opposed, but our race obsessed society, molded as it is by years of identity politics, make it impossible to talk about her merits instead of her utter irrelevant characteristics, such as her gender and ethnic background.