In the News
May 31, 2009 |
Atlanta Journal Constitution
"the bizarre notion that Sotomayor should be disqualified because she has acknowledged that personal experiences play a role in her judgments. That’s a common-sense observation, but it has been cast as heresy among the black-robed Spocks who render objective judgments about the law. Hogwash. All human beings, including white men, see life through the prism of their experiences. We cannot separate our views and values from the experiences that made us who we are. For example, if you have spent your life in a middle-class milieu where everyone owns a car and travels by plane, it’s hard to imagine that a law requiring a state-sponsored photo ID would deny the franchise to some eligible voters. But I grew up in a small town with many law-abiding, church-going elderly voters who don’t have a driver’s license and have never needed one. So I know people who are unfairly hampered by rigid voter ID laws. The ability to readily comprehend the feelings, thoughts and motives of another is called “empathy,” a trait that ought to be considered a fine thing for a Supreme Court justice to have. But that attribute, too, has driven Sotomayor’s critics around the bend, since they lack not only empathy but also self-awareness. They don’t know what they don’t know."
May 31, 2009 |
Oregonian
"Her academic record is more impressive than that of several sitting justices, including fellow Princeton alum Justice Samuel Alito. Her career as a criminal prosecutor, private-practice attorney and federal judge is long and distinguished. ...Judicial temperament is a normal and proper subject of exploration, yet in Sotomayor's case, the adjectives bandied about sound different. She's called "feisty" for having opinions. Also "brash" for being assertive. "Emotional" for having, on documented occasions, shown emotion."
May 31, 2009 |
Daily Freeman [NY]
"Sotomayor, then, is a safe choice, perhaps even a wise one.... Sotomayor is a solid pick and should be confirmed."
May 31, 2009 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
"During the 2007-08 term, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed briefs in 15 cases and won 13. Are we supposed to believe that Roberts' life experience in the service of corporate interests had no bearing on his votes? Sotomayor has only been stating the obvious. Judges are human. They naturally need to respect legal precedent, follow the law, apply the facts, and aspire to total impartiality. But they're ultimately required to make tough interpretative calls"
May 30, 2009 |
New York Times
"Clearly, conservative groups and Republican elected officials see this nomination as a way to score points off wedge issues that excite their base. It diminishes everyone when a nomination process deteriorates into character assassination and ethnic intolerance."
May 30, 2009 |
New York Daily News
"The rhetoric is empty and dead wrong. The more scholars and partisans have pored over Sotomayor's cases, the harder it has become to make her out to be a wild-eyed bogeywoman. ... These are the facts that will count at her confirmation hearings. The rest is fantasy."
May 29, 2009 |
Lufkin Daily News [TX]
"Based on what we've seen and heard so far, the U.S. Senate should have no trouble in confirming the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. She's clearly qualified, well-educated, experienced as a lawyer and a judge and would bring to the court an intellect informed by a life that began with no special advantage except that she lived in this country."
May 29, 2009 |
Daily Democrat (CA)
"In Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama has found a Supreme Court nominee with the intellect of David Souter, whom she would succeed, and the outspokenness of Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative with whom she would spar."
May 29, 2009 |
Stockton Record [CA]
"Her written opinions are described as models of judicial craftsmanship."
May 29, 2009 |
Intelligencer Journal (PA)
Obama "chose a justice whose rulings are moderate and whose experience is broad."
May 29, 2009 |
News and Observer
"in this diverse society, many people whose backgrounds are not the conventional American WASP model feel they bring a valuable perspective to some issues that those who fit that model cannot have....That Sotomayor might bring her own experiences into her deliberation of Constitutional issues is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. The Constitution is a magnificent document, but it is subject to interpretation and has been for over 200 years. A justice, any justice, can and should ponder the profound issues brought before the court through his or her own intellectual prism before basing a conclusion on the law as he or she understands it."
May 29, 2009 |
Burlington Free Press
"Perhaps the most curious objection to Judge Sonia Sotomayor is over the fact that President Barack Obama said empathy was one of the characteristics he was looking for in the next Supreme Court justice.... Empathy is simply the ability to recognize that the law exists outside the sterile pages of case books. Anyone who thinks any judge lives sealed away from the influence of politics and culture is more than naive. ...her record shows the judge to be highly accomplished, relentless at her task, eminently qualified, and with broad experience within the judiciary and without."
May 29, 2009 |
News Tribune (WA)
"Sotomayor remains an eminently qualified jurist with ample scholarship and expertise for the job."
May 28, 2009 |
Ventura County Star
"Even before President Barack Obama nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a conservative group blasted her as a “liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written.”
Actually, given their party’s stunning erosion in Hispanic support, Senate Republicans may want to weigh very carefully whether her nomination is a battle they want to fight."
May 28, 2009 |
Akron Beacon Journal
"By almost any measure, Sotomayor brings a compelling set of life experiences....Along the way, Sotomayor has earned a reputation for hard work and keen intelligence....What Souter and Sotomayor share is a respect for precedent, for the facts of a case, for rigorous analysis and crisp reasoning....The president rightly seeks to enhance the diversity of the court, adding a woman and the first Hispanic to sit as a justice."
May 28, 2009 |
Durango Herald
"Sotomayor's experiences both as a person and a jurist appear to give her a broad and deep reservoir from which to draw legal conclusions.... Experience shapes decisions - and vice versa. Accordingly, it makes sense to gather as broad a range of experiences as is practical and possible to make the decisions that affect a broad spectrum of American citizens. Recognizing that personal history is at least a factor - if not a significant one - in judicial decision-making is an important step, and one that Sotomayor has taken."
May 28, 2009 |
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Some of the critical commentary has been downright childish or unhinged -- she's a reverse racist to the dubious Rush Limbaugh, not sufficiently smart to the patronizing Karl Rove. This side of the nomination hearings, most of her opponents have their prejudices but not her true measure. The American people know what they see: a historic nomination of a well-qualified jurist who would be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court and only the third woman."
May 28, 2009 |
Daily Astorian (OR)
"Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a smart and cautious jurist who will be a moderate voice of reason on the U.S. Supreme Court.... Sotomayor appears to perfectly fulfill the need for mature, compassionate intelligence."
May 28, 2009 |
Marshall News Messenger [TX]
"Remember, if it sounds shocking it probably is not true. As we said, the Senate has already confirmed Judge Sotomayor twice."
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