I don't know much about Sonia Sotomayor. Why would I? Judges are not known to us the way lawmakers are, or even governors of other states are. I figure that's as it ought to be, justice being blind and all.
So, the first article I read on the nomination has two passages that have me hoping for a miracle defeat:
Even before she was nominated, conservative activists were describing her as a judicial activist who would put feelings above the Constitution.
Sotomayor seemed to take the matter head on. She said the rule of law is the foundation of all basic rights and the principles set forth by the Founding Fathers endure. "Those principles," she said at the White House, "are as meaningful and relevant in each generation as the generation before."
and
Sotomayor has spoken about her pride in her ethnic background and has said that personal experiences "affect the facts that judges choose to see."
"I simply do not know exactly what the difference will be in my judging," she said in a speech in 2001. "But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage."
I don't want a Supreme Court Justice, left or right, who puts feelings ahead of the Constitution. It seems to me that we have eight Justices that do that now, and as such, the next appointment will merely replace one of those eight. No improvement. I hope Justice Kennedy lives to be 135.
And I certainly don't want a racist, sexist Justice. That last quote makes me very uneasy. Imagine if a white man had said that. There would be references to linens as costume, and organizations using the letters between J and L. But instead, this racism and sexism is 'historic'.
Thus, I don't like the nature of the nomination. From the same article, the first statement:
Reaching for history, President Barack Obama on Tuesday chose federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court
I don't want nominations, appointments, or elections based on the color of one's skin, one's sex organs, or one's national origin. I want this done on the basis of a resume, and resume only. Let's stop this idiocy of being 'historic'. Rule of law, not of men.
