Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor for the Supremes

WEDNESDAY: Jennifer Rubin on Obama's SCOTUS choice
NOTEWORTHY: 60% reversal rate of Sotomayor's opinions by Supreme Court
SEXISM, ELITISM AND RACISM SURFACE SOONER........RATHER THAN LATER FOR SOTOMAYOR: "I would hope that a wise Latina (the race and wisdom cards) woman (the gender/feminist card) with the richness of her experiences (the arrogant elitism card) would more often than not reach a better conclusion (the elitism/we know what's best card) than a white male (the sex and race card reiterated) who hasn’t lived that life.” (Can you imagine in your wildest dreams Sarah Palin saying and getting by with a statement like that?---I recall her small-town America statement for which she was castigated by the left.)
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THIS MORNING President Obama nominates federal judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court to replace Justice David Souter, a move that could best be described as hitting a home run with all the bases loaded from the standpoint of fulfilling his liberal agenda for remaking society on the highest court in the land:

Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Conformation Network, criticized her support for "quotas" and "racial preferences." She called Sotomayor "a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written."

I'll bet that this Hispanic/Puerto Rican woman will be confirmed quickly and take her place on the highest court in the land. Don't yet know her exact "empathy quotient" but I suspect she measures up in every way to Obama's desire for feeling the pain of victims rather than knowing the legal principles and constitutional issues involved.

In other words, justice will no longer be blind as it should be, but wear rose colored glasses instead.

The right will want to know how she treats legal precedent and the left will be clamoring to make sure the fuzzy Catholic is pro-abortion and pro-same sex marriage.

The partisan political legal olympics have begun.

This post will be updated.

UPDATE: Some of her greatest admirers still call her a bully on the bench and not as smart as they would like her to be: The Case Against Sotomayor.

Roger Kimball writes at Pajamas. Roger Simon weighs in.

15 comments:

christian conservative said...

i am so disappointed that the president did not nominate a white, middle-aged man to the position.

legal fluff said...

Her "compelling life story," rather than her legal competence will unfortunately gain her much support.

libtard gulag spokesman who hates america and its fighting men and women said...

Only in today's GOP can you define the children of single parents who either live in public housing or spend time on welfare as "elitists" and call graduates of Ivy League Universities and/or heads of the Law Review not very smart.

It's almost like you don't know what an "elitist" is, and have absolutely no clue what it takes to get into a prestigious university, let alone graduate summa cum laude [that's Latin for "with highest honors"] from a top tier law school.

Webutante said...

Nothing keeps anyone--of any color, creed, socio-eonomic group---from elitist thinking. Her comments above were dripping in what I call elitism.

fraydna52 said...

Re the quote: Could Ms. Sotomayor give a specific example? Could she define her terms? Why does she think this statement true?

One could just as easily say "I would hope that a wise Anglo-Saxon man with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina female who hasn’t lived that life.”

News for Ms. Sotomayor - richness of experience and living "that" life (definition, please?) are not exclusive to Latina women or any other group one may name.

I am really starting to hate this arbitrary labeling of human beings and the assignment of attributes based on those labels.

BTW, a couple of definitions of elitism (from dictionary.com):

"Consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group."

"The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority."

Webutante said...

Wow, thank you.

Ellen said...

Dear Libtard,

You don't seem to understand modern Republicanism. If you are Ivy League educated, you are an 'elite.' Republicans are wary of the educated. They are considered 'elite,' outsiders, NOT 'one of us.' Further Sotomayor is a Hispanic female... definitely NOT 'one of us.'

According to the GOP, what do you get when you have a white woman who is quite beautiful, poorly educated, not really smart, never been anywhere, very conservative, and a fervent Christian?

Answer: Miss California, or a Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate

Webutante said...

I'm afraid we're talking in two different zones here, Ellen. Again and for the last time, the elistist description was to the remark and to Sotomayers attitude.

elitist non-Ivy league educated libtard who reads books and hates America said...

Ellen,

I understand modern conservatism perfectly. I am quite certain that my husband and I - both raised in solidly middle class union households - would be tagged as elitists for our upbringings, for having worked our way through college, for driving American cars, for having a vast collection of books, etc.

I personally think it's a winning argument for the GOP - that libtards are elitists - and would be best delivered by people like Mitt Romney - perhaps from his lakeside resort now that his ski chalet has been sold.

And yes, I know this comment has ZERO chance of being published. How's that for elitism!

fraydna52 said...

Once again, elitism is an attitude of superiority - it could just as well be based on how hard one had it growing up as on the material possessions one owns. All human beings, if honest about it, have at least one area where they feel superior to others. True humility is a very rare attribute.

Webutante said...

Yes, fraydna, it is an attitude inherent in all fallen people, not due to circumstance.

But Sotomayor exhibited it in her statement above in spades, as we all have at some time. Not sure that Ellen can make that connection and distinction here.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Paul Gordon said...

NOTEWORTHY: 60% reversal rate of Sotomayor's opinions by Supreme Court.

Well, THAT'S why she wants on board; to stop that reversal rate.

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book reading libtard america hater in vienna said...

This person has too much empathy, something not needed or wanted in a Supreme Court justice according to the extreme right. Wanna guess who it is?

"I don't come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.

And I know about their experiences and I didn't experience those things. I don't take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame."

"...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."

"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."

I hope Sonia Sotomayor says EXACTLY the same things Samuel Alito said in his answer to a question from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), if for no other reason than to make people like you explain why it is ok for conservatives to have empathy but not moderates like Sonya Sotomayor.

Webutante said...

Goodness, Vienna, you sure to put a lot of words and thoughts in my mouth that I don't say or think. There's a great, great deal of projection going on here.

No one, let alone I, say that it's okay for conservatives to have empathy and not liberals---where ever do you dream these things up?

What I do say is no one is above the rule of law, not even people we have compassion and empathy for. If the SCOTUS did not have humans beings with human insight and experience, it could be filled by legal machines and automatons.

Having said that, and that empathy is a fine and decent quality in all humans, I say Obama's assertion that a person with empathy is more qualified for the court is most inappropriate in my book and just plain silliness. And I know you disagree with me and that's fine.

projecting libtard communist wanna be said...

I don't know, maybe it's your constant mocking ("Don't yet know her exact "empathy quotient")of Obama (and now Sotomayor) saying he looked for a judge that had, among many other qualitites, empathy? I don't think I'm projecting, but hey, I'm a libtard - and a woman - so cut me some slack. Perhaps I'm misreading what you've written, and you're not belittling the President.