The Obama administration made a calculation to swing deep with their first attempt at having a Supreme Court justice appointment. President Obama shrewdly calculated the political gravitas in having the first Latino justice appointed to the Supreme Court. (Even though President Bush attempted to appoint Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, back in 2003.) Estrada was blocked by Democrats as public records now reveal the contempt they had for the idea of a conservative Latino beating them to the punch.
President Obama could care less about any resistance at the confirmation level and figures this is in the bag - regardless of who he appoints. He has chosen a derisive figure to replace Justice Souter because he can, and is a pretty clear indication of where his ideology is centered.
When and if Sotomayor is confirmed, she will put her hand on a Bible and swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. "Empathy" has no room in this process and in fact is anathema to our rule of law. When I read her 2001 Berkeley speech where she says a Latina woman can reach a better conclusion than a white male, I am somehow not comforted by her standards of impartiality. Had one merely flipped the players in this quote, from Latin female to white male, we would have an unambiguously bigoted, bordering on racist statement. How has this point become lost on so many Americans?
No doubt she has an impressive academic resume, but her years on the court have been less than stellar. Clearly she used empathy to steer her away from sound jurisprudence when on the federal appeals court, Sotomayor ruled against white firemen in the now infamous Ricci case. Here, 20 white firemen and one Hispanic sued the city of New Haven, Conn., when promotion tests were tossed out because the identical tests taken by 19 black firemen had insufficient scores for promotion. And even though no promotions were ultimately given, in reality, the decision meant that Ricci and other qualified candidates were denied promotions because of the color of their skin. Now, how embarrassing that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this case on appeal and very likely overturn Sotomayor's decision, marking the seventh case she has had overturned.
Again at Duke in 2005, Sotomayor declared: "The court of appeals is where policy is made." She made this comment to a room full of legal academic elites who found knowing humor in her comment and can be heard chuckling loudly. Judge Sotomayor . . . courts are not where policy is made, madam. That portion of the government is called the legislative branch - a fact you should have learned at about the third grade.
The judiciary should transcend politics, for without an unbiased judiciary Americans will lose faith in our legal system. When the rule of law breaks down, one need not spin a globe hard to see what can happen.
