And The Sliming Of Sotomayor Begins

JCN Statement on nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court


May 26, 2009


Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, on nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court:

"Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one's sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench.

"She reads racial preferences and quotas into the Constitution, even to the point of dishonoring those who preserve our public safety. On September 11, America saw firsthand the vital role of America's firefighters in protecting our citizens. They put their lives on the line for her and the other citizens of New York and the nation. But Judge Sotomayor would sacrifice their claims to fair treatment in employment promotions to racial preferences and quotas. The Supreme Court is now reviewing that decision.

"She has an extremely high rate of her decisions being reversed, indicating that she is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court."

The Four Likely Lines of Attack Against Sonia Sotomayor
May 26, 2009, 08:54 am CDT
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Mainstream Republicans are unlikely to risk political capital on opposing a nominee who would become the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, litigator Thomas Goldstein writes on SCOTUSblog, the blog he created. But extreme public interest groups that depend on controversy to raise funds have an interest in caricaturing the nominee, he says.

Goldstein sees these possible lines of attack:

1) Sotomayor is not smart enough, a claim likely to be “stated obliquely and only on background.” The claim isn’t true, according to Goldstein. She graduated from the top of her class at Princeton and went on to attend Yale Law School. Her opinions are well-reasoned and clearly written. “Nothing suggests she isn’t the match of the other justices.”

2) Sotomayor is a judicial activist. Goldstein says SCOTUSblog’s review of Sotomayor’s judicial opinions shows her to be “on the left of this Supreme Court, just not the radical left.”

3) Judge Sotomayor is dismissive of positions with which she disagrees. This line of attack will include references to a speech in which Sotomayor said the ethnicity and sex of a judge “may and will make a difference in our judging” and to another speech in which she acknowledged that federal judges effectively make policy. Goldstein’s conclusion: “There just isn’t any remotely persuasive evidence that Judge Sotomayor acts lawlessly or anything of the sort.”

4) Sotomayor is too gruff and impersonable. Goldstein says his impression from her questioning at oral arguments is that Sotomayor, a tough questioner, is similar to Justice Antonin Scalia and, when he is engaged, the justice she will replace, David H. Souter.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/the_four_likely_lines_of_attack_against_sonia_sotomayor/