Posted by
Steve on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 9:20:31 AM
Barack Obama nominated his first Supreme Court Justice yesterday. He selected Sonia Sotomayer. She is a far left nominee, which should be no surprise. If approved, she would be the first Hispanic elevated to the Supreme Court. That would be a distinct honor. That honor should have gone to Miguel Estrada. But the left so demonized him that his nomination was impossible.
For the most part, Judge Sotomayer is uncontroversial. That is to be expected from any Supreme Court nominee. The last thing a President wants is for his nominee to be attacked as badly as Justice Thomas was.
Judge Sotomayer has made a few statements that have people scratching their heads. The worst two are her one that a Hispanic woman can make better decisions than a white male and that the bench is where policy is made. Many people are lining up to oppose her based on those two comments alone. You have to find out the context of those statements before you can jump to a conclusion. Context is what did she really mean when she used the words attributed to her. You look at the statements before and after the statement in question to form the answer to context. At this time, the context has not been released.
The first comment shows a racist tendency. That would be terrible in anyone, but particularly in a Supreme Court nominee. If she truly is a racist, she would not be the first. There have been members of the KKK that have served on the Supreme Court back in the later half of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century.
The second comment is one that would indicate that she felt the Constitution was not the law of the land. That would mean that she would be like the other liberal judges on the Supreme Court and use foreign law and her own opinion to determine if something is Constitutional. What Supreme Court Justices are supposed to do is look at the words in the Constitution itself, and nothing else, to determine if something is Constitutional. They can reference other American case law to back up their opinion. But, the words of the Constitution take precedence. Ideally, the original intent of the Framers of the Constitution should be taken into consideration when making the decision. This does not always seem to be the case for more recent Supreme Court decisions.
There is an interview with Jonathan Turley out on You Tube. In the interview, he says that Judge Sonia Sotomayer is just an affirmative action pick. Jonathan Turley teaches law at George Washington School of Law. He should know whether Judge Sotomayer is a good selection or not. Jonathan Turley is also a reliable liberal, so if he is bashing Judge Sotomayer for being an affirmative action pick, she must be pretty bad.
Right now, I am reserving judgment until I know more about Judge Sotomayer. My first impression is not good. The two bad comments raise red flags. Until those red flags are successfully answered, my opinion tends to be negative. If I had a vote and it had to be now, based on first impressions, it would be no. But, we will learn more over the next couple of months. She may not be as bad as the first impressions make her out to be. She might be a Harriet Meier pick or she might be really good. I just hope she is not as bad as Ruth Bader Ginsberg. That would be a total disaster.