Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Obama Nominates Sonia Sotomayor For Supreme Court Justice

Obama has Nominated Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court.

Here is the clip of Obama's announcement.

Video embedded below.



Obama had said that race and gender would not be determining factors, but he has picked someone who is female and Hispanic. Sotomayor would not necessarily be the first Hispanic. Justice Benjamin Cardozo had Portuguese ancestry. To many he is considered the first Hispanic Justice, but to others he does not qualify (http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2009/05/13_kaufman.html and http://volokh.com/posts/1243348317.shtml). She would be the third women (only one of which is still a Supreme Court Justice) and the first Hispanic women.

Sonia Sotomayor is not without controversy. Even before serious opposition research began, a few things have come to light. Among the more notable is Sotomayor saying that the court of appeals is where policy is made. This is the conservative fear of an activist judge when the courts basically take the law making powers away from the legislature creating the laws themselves.

Video embedded below.



She also made a comment about how a Latin women would more often then not reach a better conclusion then a white male. Many have pointed out that if the races and genders were reversed, the potential nominee would never have been nominated because of the accusations of racism and sexism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/15judge.html

"“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” said Judge Sotomayor"

Attacks against her had commenced even before she was officially nominated by Obama.

Video embedded below (from ObamasFrontrunners.com first reported at Berman Post: ObamasFrontrunners.com)



If recent history is any indication, the only thing we really know for sure is that this is going to be a tough couple of weeks/months for Sotomayor regardless of if she will eventually be confirmed.

I will end with Sotomayor's comments from right after Obama gave her the official nod.

Video embedded below. (The video starts as Obama is ending his announcement; a few seconds of overlap with the Fox video at the top of the post.)



Past related posts:
Berman Post: Supreme Court Justice David Souter Will Retire
Berman Post: Obama Comments On Supreme Court Justice David Souter's Retirement
Berman Post: Specter's Defection May Hurt Obama in Picking a New Supreme Court Justice
Berman Post: ObamasFrontrunners.com

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