In the News
May 27, 2009 |
Baltimore Sun
"Conservative commentators pounced on the president's use of the word "empathy" to describe one of the qualities he was looking for - as if an ability to put oneself in another person's shoes was somehow undesirable in a judge ...The opinions she has written on the environment and the 2nd Amendment are to the left of the current court but clearly in the mainstream of judicial thought."
May 27, 2009 |
Salon.com
"As is true for any Supreme Court nominee, there are many legitimate questions to raise about Sonia Sotomayor, but the smear attacks on her as some sort of "identity politics" poster child -- which are still being justified largely if not entirely by the Jeffrey Rosen/TNR gossipy hit piece on her -- are nothing short of disgusting. As Anonymous Liberal put it: "Apparently, the only way to avoid 'identity politics' is to pick white men for every job."'"
May 27, 2009 |
Manitowac Herald Times Reporter
"President Obama was right when he said in his nomination speech that few presidential responsibilities, "are more serious or more consequential than selecting a Supreme Court justice."
In naming federal judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York to replace retiring Justice David Souter, Obama proved that he is taking this duty seriously."
May 27, 2009 |
Greensboro News & Record [NC]
"she could add a new voice to its deliberations and decisions. In some ways, she fits the court's traditional garb; in others, she may set her own style. But substance matters more. Sotomayor's accomplishments have prepared her for this opportunity."
May 27, 2009 |
Herald (WA)
"Empathy, despite what some might think, does not equate to sympathy. It doesn't imply a predisposition to favor the perceived underdog. Rather, it's the ability to put oneself in someone else's shoes, a trait to be valued in any judge. Sotomayor's gender, ethnicity, upbringing and professional background should enable her to stand in a wide variety of shoes. ... the Supreme Court is composed of human beings interpreting a Constitution that was written by human beings. We're not looking for an ideological robot."
May 27, 2009 |
Midland Daily News [MI]
Obama "spoke of empathy, of "understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles." This Sotomayor reflects, but it isn't all that she is,"
May 27, 2009 |
Examiner
Jean Williams, Seattle Environmental Policy Examiner quotes Earthjustice's Glenn Sugameli. Williams concludes: "The choice of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for a place at the U.S. Supreme Court table, is a bold, forwarding thinking choice, to help form a more inclusive, sensible, open-minded, balanced, and diversified American legacy."
May 27, 2009 |
Mercury News (CA)
"certainly, as only the third woman and first Latina on the Supreme Court, she would bring a different voice to a court needing broad perspectives. This understanding or empathy, a much-maligned term, helps a judge see practical effects of momentous decisions. It informs objectivity rather than detracts from it. It is the quality that Obama was looking for in a nominee. Sotomayor appears to possess it among the many assets that make her qualified to serve on the Supreme Court."
May 27, 2009 |
Anchorage Daily News
"In May 2005, Sen. Murkowski opposed using the filibuster to block presidential appointments. ...Writing in the Juneau Empire, Sen. Murkowski said: "Let me make it clear that I support an up-or-down vote on all nominations brought to the Senate floor, regardless of the president nominating them or which party controls the Senate. These nominees deserve to be considered based on their merits." ... Judge Sotomayor has a stellar resume for serving on the nation's highest court. ...Give President Obama's Supreme Court nominee a fair hearing and a clean up or down vote."
May 27, 2009 |
San Francisco Chronicle
"It's hard to imagine a less controversial pick for Obama's first Supreme Court nominee.... She is known as a pragmatist. Experts note that she, like Obama, usually seeks consensus with her more conservative colleagues. Even her more controversial statements - such as a past comment that her own experiences as a Puerto Rican and a woman inform her decisions - seem to be in line with common sense and, frankly, past precedent."
May 27, 2009 |
Denver Post
"Republicans called for up-or-down votes with Bush's picks. We ask them to remember those appeals now that nominees have begun on a Democrat's watch."
May 27, 2009 |
Pasadena Star-News [CA]
"even the nomination of a not just well-respected but stellar jurist such as Sonia Sotomayor will be fought over by the cats and dogs of Washington, D.C. ... Our hope is for a reasonably swift confirmation "
May 27, 2009 |
Berkshire Eagle (MA)
"Any judge, for that matter, any human being, should of course consider the consequences of their actions and decisions on others. What a justice should not do is toss precedent and the Constitution aside in his or her decision-making, which has happened far too often in a series of 5-4 decisions carried by the Supreme Court's right-wing judicial activists over the past decade. ... A filibuster of Ms. Sotomayor would make hypocrites of the party's leadership, though hardly for the first time."
May 27, 2009 |
Washington Post
"Forgive me, though, if I detect a whiff of sexism in the bully-on-the-bench rap; somehow I doubt that a male judge would be so chided for being firm with litigants. Ditto, with a bit of racism thrown in, the barely sourced and inadequately supported suggestion of Sotomayor as an intellectual lightweight. I find it awfully hard to reconcile that with graduating summa cum laude from Princeton."
May 27, 2009 |
Des Moines Register
"If Grassley supports a filibuster on Sotomayor's nomination, he will make it undeniably clear that he is happy to use the Constitution as a political prop. We will be made acutely aware that he sees our founding documents as trivial things, to be revered when they are useful and cast aside when the political winds change direction."
May 27, 2009 |
Bangor Daily News
"President Obama has set the right standard: intelligence, understanding that judges interpret, not make, laws, and an understanding of how ordinary people live. ... the nation’s highest court is strengthened by a diversity of views. It is also strengthened by jurists with varied life experiences, especially those who can identify with workers, not just business owners, with taxpayers, not just government bureaucrats....in 1997. Republican senators stalled her nomination for a year, fearing she would make a good Supreme Court nominee for a Democratic president. Senators should carefully review Ms. Sotomayor’s record, but there is no place for the stalling and posturing of a decade ago."
May 27, 2009 |
Palm Beach Post
"Unless James Madison can be raised from the dead - and have Twitter explained to him - no one can pretend to interpret the Constitution as the framers did. Courts at all levels make policy regularly. The John Roberts court did so again on Tuesday when it expanded the power of police to question suspects.... the confirmation process is designed to weed out "the unqualified and the unacceptable." Judge Sotomayor is neither."
May 27, 2009 |
Wichita Eagle
"In federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has found a U.S. Supreme Court nominee of vast judicial experience who would lend the court welcome diversity."
May 27, 2009 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
"No judge comes to the bench as a blank slate. All jurists bring with them an accumulation of life experiences that affect their outlook and philosophy. It's as true for Sotomayor as it is for Antonin Scalia. Conservatives also criticize Sotomayor as an activist because she said appellate judges create "policy." Their argument is malarkey. When judges apply the law to a set of facts, they clarify the law, i.e., "set policy" - whether they are conservative or liberal. ... she appears to have the experience and the temperament to merit Obama's confidence."
May 27, 2009 |
Bennington Banner [VT]
"President Bush nominated Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, both reliably conservative on civil rights issues and those involving a conflict between business and labor." It is "a good sign that President Obama has selected Sonia Sotomayor, who doesn't appear any more predictable than the man she seeks to replace, Justice Souter. She is, however, eminently qualified for the position."
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