I Am An Important Fact: Sonia Sotomayor Edition
Newsweek's Dahlia Lithwick writes:
On the appeals court Judge Sotomayor has taken a fairly moderate, text-based approach to the cases before her, placing her much closer to retiring Justice David Souter than to the late Justice William Brennan on the judicial activism spectrum.
She has been overturned twice at the Supreme Court, and may well be again soon. But she was also a federal prosecutor, a corporate lawyer, and a Bush I appointee to the federal bench. As the White House points out in its talking points today, "In cases where Sotomayor and at least one judge appointed by a Republican president were on the three-judge panel, Sotomayor and the Republican appointee(s) agreed on the outcome 95% of the time."
The truth about Sotomayor is probably that she's neither as radical as her detractors fear nor as liberal as her advocates hope. At the very least, there's nothing in her existing record that suggests anything beyond a pragmatic, left-of-center judge.
By
Ezra Klein
|
May 28, 2009; 10:04 AM ET
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Legal
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Posted by: Drew_Miller_Hates_IDs_That_Dont_Allow_Spaces | May 28, 2009 10:19 AM | Report abuse
The washingtonpost website has really bad design choices for comment readability. I know times are tough in the journalism industry, but if The American Prospect can do this right the Post ought to be able to, too. Maybe everyone is too busy fact-checking George Will.
Posted by: Drew_Miller_Hates_IDs_That_Dont_Allow_Spaces | May 28, 2009 10:22 AM | Report abuse
Because that's what I remember from my time at TAP: How much everyone loved the comment software!
What's the problem you're having?
Posted by: Ezra Klein | May 28, 2009 10:45 AM | Report abuse
Well aside from the one in my name, and the problems it was initially having, I don't like the font size or spacing. :-)
Posted by: Drew_Miller_Hates_IDs_That_Dont_Allow_Spaces | May 28, 2009 11:26 AM | Report abuse
So the real question is, will there ever be another actual liberal on the court? We've had nothing since movement conservatives, pragmatic right of center, and pragmatic left of center appointees since the 1960's.
Posted by: valeskoi | May 28, 2009 12:04 PM | Report abuse
Exactly - Republican appointees are very conservative in law and lifestyle - there is little to no attempt to pick a moderate - Democratic appointees are center slightly left to center right - there is every attempt to pick a moderate - I think I like Sotomayor even though she is the 6th Catholic(!) on the court - but why can we not have nominees as liberal as as Repub nominees are conservative?
Posted by: loki251 | May 28, 2009 12:24 PM | Report abuse
Sotomayor hates bloggers
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Critics-unhappy-with-Sotomayors-role-in-CT-free-speech-case.html
Posted by: ElViajero1 | May 28, 2009 12:57 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
That factoid is either really misleading or poorly worded - in 100% of her cases she is on the bench with a Republican appointee, since she is one. That 95% rate could actually be really low excluding self-agreement. I doubt that is what they mean, though.