Judge Sonia Sotomayer Confirmed by Senate for Supreme Court

Sotomayor was confimed by a vote of 68 to 31.

She will be the first Hispanic member of the Supreme Court and only the third woman.

She'lll be sworn in on Saturday.
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Sotomayor declares Roe V. Wade is "settled law" and affirms right to privacy

She also said Planned Parenthood V. Casey is settled law.

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Sotomayor Hearings

As the Senate hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination starts, here's a reminder of the vitriolic pre-spin she's received from the wingnuts:


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Sometimes, When The Stars Align Just So...

The editorial boards at the P-G and Trib editorialize on the same subject.

Thus it is today - the subject is the schedule for the confirmation process for Sonia Sotomayor.

The Trib sez slow down:

Here's a question regarding U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor that the Obama White House needs to answer: What's the hurry, especially when Democrat [sic] control of the Senate virtually guarantees her confirmation?

And:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, has set Sotomayor's hearing to start July 13, just 48 days after her nomination; for Chief Justice John Roberts, it was 55 days. Again, GOP senators' desire for more time is legitimate, particularly because the Supreme Court's next term doesn't begin until Oct. 5.

As I am sure the good folks on the Boulevard of the Allies had no idea what Scaife's gang was going to write, we can't really call the P-G's editorial pre-emptive. Though it's tempting.

Even by the rancorous standards of recent Supreme Court nomination battles, federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been the subject of a gross level of partisan attack.

This disgraceful campaign, stooping so low as to accuse her of racism or reverse racism, is a by-product of a dispirited Republican Party trying to energize its base. Critics of Judge Sotomayor's nomination clearly view this as a political opportunity, not a chance to delve honestly into her qualifications. After all, most of them have already made up their minds.

That is why Americans should be wary of Republican complaints about a mid-July date to convene the nomination hearings. When Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced this week that the hearings would start July 13, Republicans were reportedly surprised and angry. They wanted more time to prepare -- in reality, more time to make political hay.

Considering the Republicans floated an idea that, if taken to its logical conclusion, would require almost two years of review, I find the P-G's argument a bit more, uh, valid.

My best guess is that the GOP is hoping that if they stretch out the time between the nomination and the confirmation hearings something embarrassing to Sotomayor will pop out of the sky to help them further obstruct the Obama administration.

Oops!

We expect this sort of thing from The Washington Times, not the Post.

From The Washington Post:

Correction

Thursday, May 28, 2009

The May 27 editorial "The President's Pick" incorrectly referred to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the daughter of "immigrant" parents. Judge Sotomayor's parents were not immigrants but were born in Puerto Rico after passage of a 1917 law that automatically conferred U.S. citizenship on island-born residents.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the legendary, the one and only Vast Hypocrisy of the Right Wing!

On Empathy:

President George H.W. Bush on Clarence Thomas in July 1991:

"I have followed this man's career for some time. He is a delightful and warm, intelligent person who has great empathy and a wonderful sense of humor."

On Empathy & Identity Politics:

Judge Samuel Alito's during his U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing for the Supreme Court:

And that's why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.

And so it's my job to apply the law. It's not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.

But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country."

When I have cases involving children, I can't help but think of my own children and think about my children being treated in the way that children may be treated in the case that's before me.

And that goes down the line. When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who's been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I've known and admire very greatly who've had disabilities, and I've watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn't think of what it's doing -- the barriers that it puts up to them.

So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.

Your Mission:

Find a single Wingnut who screamed bloody murder about the above statements at the time that they were made.

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Obama's Pick of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court

President Barak Obama announced his nomination of the first ever Latina for the Supreme Court today: Sonia Sotomayor.

Wingnuts started smearing her even before the official announcement.

They've labeled the summa cum laude graduate of Princeton and J.D. grad of Yale Law School (where she was also an editor of the Yale Law Journal) as stupid.

They're saying that Obama had to pick an Hispanic and a woman to further diminish her accomplishments (because it doesn't count that for the first couple of hundred years presidents had to nominate white males).

And, they're saying that as a person of color she can't be trusted to make rulings on race (apparently only white people can be trusted to make those types of rulings).

It would be extremely depressing to listen to if it were not for the fact that she'll likely prevail and sit on the court.

HA!



UPDATE: Mike Huckabee objects to Obama's pick of 'Maria' Sotomayor. (Maria, Rosa, whatever...you know, the Spanish chick...probably an illegal too.)
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