All over the internet, the popular discussion of the day, seems to be President Obama’s Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor. If approved she would be the first Hispanic and the third woman appointed. The appointment which was supposed to galvanize Republicans in opposition has instead once again turned the party into a circular firing squad with contradicting messages.
First off, there’s GOP spokesman Michael Steele suggests restraint to avoid the appearance of anti-Latino sentiment. Then there’s Rush Limbaugh’s comments claiming ‘reverse racism’. I don’t know how Republicans could object to her, she’s been voted on twice by the Senate. She was originally nominated by George Herbert Walker Bush. It just seems that this going to be a ‘win’ for Obama and objections by Republicans will prove futile. Sometimes you have to pick your battles and barring any explosive new, previously undiscovered vetting material; it appears to be a solid nomination that will gain approval.
I’ve read Sotomayor’s ‘controversial’ comments which reminds me of statements by Sandra Day O’Connor’s concerning her disappointment at not being replaced by a woman. We don’t want activist judges. But remember judges issue ‘opinions’. They obviously have differing and dissenting viewpoints which must be based on something other than straight facts and the law. So it seems rather naive to expect that a person’s life experiences would somehow not influence their decision making process.
Here, maybe this will help with understanding her views on abortion and gun rights from the Washington Post:
Gun rights groups also have a problem with Sotomayor’s views, and in this case it’s because of her substantive record, not her lack thereof. In particular, they cite a 2004 ruling in which Sotomayor joined two other judges to declare that “the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right.” You can expect conservative groups to put red-state Democratic Senators on the spot on this issue, pushing them to agree or disagree with Sotomayor. “These senators will jeopardize their seats if they vote to support an anti-gun radical for the Supreme Court,” writes Ken Blackwell, warning that “you should never underestimate the political power of American gun owners.”
Hey Shelly, How about Alberto Gonzalez, Miguel Estrada, and even Clarence Thomas. The Libs tore those guys a new a-hole!!! Not only do the liberals attempt to block the nominee but they do so with the intention of ruining their reputation. Remember. So, those nominees weren’t ‘milestones??’ What make MS. Sotomayors nomination more of a milestone than those I mention above?
You can stop blaming Bush, Cheny, Palin, McCain, Dr. Seuss, et al!
And, all you need do is Google; ‘Sotomayor abortion rights’ or anything else you’d like to know about her.
She can never be a BLIND justice!!
How about a reality check, Democrats think they know that we all need to hug a tree, stop war, and everybody will get along. This so called Lady is a racist!!! I have read that Ilya Shapiro, Editor in Chief of the CATO Supreme Court review opined:
“In picking Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has confirmed that identity politics matter to him more than merit. Judge Sotomayor is not one of the leading lights of the federal judiciary and would not even have been on the shortlist if she were not Hispanic. She has a mixed reputation, with a questionable temperament and no particularly important opinions in over 10 years on the Second Circuit. Most notably, she was part of the panel that summarily affirmed the dismissal of Ricci v. DeStefano, where the City of New Haven denied firefighter promotions based on an admittedly race-neutral exam whose results did not yield the “correct” racial mix of successful candidates. Sotomayor’s colleague Jose Cabranes a liberal Democrat, excoriated the panel’s actions and the Supreme Court will likely reverse the ruling next month”.a href=”#comment-52466″>@hello
First off welcome clifdean56,
I read somewhere that a 26% of Republicans support Sotomayor. I, personally would have been happier with Samuel Alito but such is life. As far as her being a ‘racist’, since becoming involved in the immigration debate I have been very careful to not call individuals racists unless there seems to be numerous incidents of racism. Otherwise, I choose my words more carefully and say that a particular comment has a racist tone, or something along those lines. I don’t think you can take that single line about being a “wise Latina woman” and conclude that she is a racist.
Again, as I said before this one doesn’t seem to be something that we will be able to successfully oppose.