SOTOMAYOR’S COMMITMENT TO FOLLOWING THE LAW CONCERNS SENATORS

June 5 2009

Washington, D.C. – Rarely does a nominee for the Supreme Court get a free pass. Of all the positions that can be held in Washington there is none as heavily scrutinized, outside the Presidency, than that of a potential Supreme Court Justice. Part of that has to do with the relatively small assortment of people who actually take
on the position, nine, and part has to do with the tenure, life, and part undoubtedly has to do with politics. Those factors often combine into a miasma of debate and argument and controversy that can dwarf even the election of the President who made the nomination in the first place.

That miasma is exactly what Judge Sonia Sotomayor has waded waist deep into after accepting President Obama’s nomination to the highest court. It is a maze that she undoubtedly know she was wandering into but one for which she could not have been prepared to deal with. Partisan politics and genuine questions have become a focal point in her quest for confirmation from the Senate, but it is her commitment to following the law that has put her nomination in the most peril with Senators on both sides getting a little edgy.

“So far Sotomayor’s nomination hasn’t brought the kind of controversy that accompanied Clarence Thomas when he was seeking confirmation but of course that
would be difficult to match. I mean women are hard to pin down when it comes to sexual harassment issue and simply put very few people believe it so it’s unlikely that the Republicans will be able to use that to drum up public support like the Democrats did in 1991,” said Scrape TV Political analyst Gabriel Kinsey. “Of course the race issue is one that they can focus on but it is tricky. Calling someone a racist without seeming like a racist yourself is a very difficult thing to pull off even for politicians who are used to talking around things. They will have to find something, especially if she’s making both sides a little nervous.”

After great controversy and allegations of sexual harassment by multiple women, Judge Thomas was seated after a nomination from then President George H.W. Bush. Thomas never made a declaration one way or the other as to his dedication to the rule of law.

“When you have someone like Sotomayor declaring that she is going to follow the law everyone is immediately nervous. I mean this is Washington and, well, this is Washington. Opponents get nervous because it makes it harder to get away with things and supporters get nervous because it’s more difficult to elicit partisan support, which after all is the whole reason for electing a judge in the first place,” continued Kinsey. “In a lot of ways she seems to be taking a page out of Obama’s book. There were more than a few people in Washington annoyed and concerned about his desire to change things. Republicans were concerned for obvious reasons and Democrats, well they just kind of had to ride the wave after a while no matter how much they disliked it.”

Sotomayor hasn’t been explicit on how she will decide to interpret the law. Many on the Democratic side are hoping that she will stray away from the ‘letter of the law’ approach and fall into a more left-wing adaptation.

“The concern with any new judge is that they will go out and try to prove themselves. That can irritate lawmakers and fellow judges alike because it puts everyone on edge. The fact that she is declaring this commitment to the law so clearly and so early in the process has to put a lot of people on edge,” continued Kinsey. “The hope of course is that she is merely appealing to the same kind of fan base that swept Obama into office and that she doesn’t really mean to implement any of these actions. Obama has at least partly delivered on his word so far but that doesn’t mean that she has to follow in his footsteps.”

Sotomayor did not detail her view of Republican law versus Democrat law.      

Edward Bastil, Political Correspondent

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