The punditocracy has warned us that the Republicans are so divided these days that they need a hot fight to unite them. Former Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove picking on Gen. Colin Powell and elevating Rush Limbaugh has produced a schism that they need to close over. Further, in this poor economic climate, the GOP and its candidates need to excite their donor base.
Normally, a Supreme Court nomination would be just the ticket for a good, old-fashioned, party-line brawl. The GOP will give it a try this time, too; but, a fight over the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be on a battlefield full of landmines they would do better to avoid.
First, the GOP has to be careful not to anger the electorate further. As the first Hispanic and only the third female nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), there is celebration and community pride that will create tone problems for the GOP.
Next, there is history. According to the Salt Lake Tribune both Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch voted for Sonia Sotomayor in 1998 when she was nominated to a federal appeals court. In fact, Hatch was the Chair of the Judiciary Committee at the time. The Deseret News reports Hatch as saying, “The confirmation process must focus on determining whether Judge Sotomayor is qualified to serve on the Supreme Court.”
So, we come to the next landmine. Is she qualified? Hard for the GOP to say “No” on this one unless they appear to set the bar higher than for their own nominees. Obama said that Sotomayor has more experience as a judge than any current member of the high court had when nominated.
Her personal story is inspiring and presents other landmines for the GOP. Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25, 1954 to a Puerto Rican family who moved to New York during World War II. Her mother, Celina, served in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps during the war. Sonia was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of eight. Her father, a tool-and-die maker and factory worker with a third-grade education, died when she was nine years old. Her mother, a nurse, then raised Sonia and her younger brother, Juan, who is now a physician living in Syracuse, New York. As children, they lived in a public housing project in the South Bronx. Sonia reports having been inspired as a child to a legal career by fictional characters that are as American as apple pie -- Nancy Drew and Perry Mason.
Sonia excelled in school, graduating as valedictorian of Cardinal Spellman High School Class of 1972 and winning a scholarship to Princeton University. After graduating summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa in 1976, she entered Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal in 1979.
Out of law school, Sonia Sotomayor became an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, where she tried dozens of serious criminal cases over five years.
She married Kevin Noonan on August 14, 1976 shortly after graduating from Princeton, but they divorced in 1983 and did not have children.
Sonia Sotomayor entered private practice at the firm of Pavia & Harcourt in 1984, and worked as an international corporate litigator handling cases involving everything from intellectual property to banking, real estate and contract law.
In 1991, she was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H.W. Bush. The Lexis databases contains 460 decisions issued by Judge Sotomayor while she sat as a district judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York between 1992 and 1998.
In 1998, Judge Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton and became the first Latina to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which covers New York, Vermont and Connecticut. She has participated in over 3,000 panel decisions and authored roughly 400 opinions, handling difficult issues of constitutional law, to complex procedural matters, to lawsuits involving complicated business organizations.
Known as a moderate on the court, Sotomayor often forges consensus and agreeing with her more conservative nominees far more frequently than she disagrees with them. 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.
Over a distinguished career that spans three decades, Sonia Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial system – as a prosecutor, litigator, trial court and appellate judge -- yielding a depth of experience and a breadth of perspectives that will be invaluable – and is currently not represented -- on our highest court.
If confirmed for the Supreme Court, Judge Sotomayor would bring more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in 100 years, and more overall judicial experience than anyone confirmed for the Court in the past 70 years.
Finally, the GOP will face another landmine – excessive delay. Citing Judge Sotomayor’s vast experience they will want to delay the confirmation vote needlessly depriving the SCOTUS of a full roster of personnel. They should avoid this tactic, too. Since Sandra Day O'Connor's nomination by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the average number of days between the designation of a nominee and the start of hearings has been 45 days. The average number of days between nomination and confirmation for the last five Supreme Court justices is 72 days. Justice Roberts was confirmed 72 days after his nomination, and Justice Ginsburg was confirmed in just 50 days. There is plenty of time for Sonia Sotomayor to be seated in early September as the Court prepares for its next term.
While the Republicans may need to pick a fight to unite their base, they should avoid this one lest they shrink their base even further.
0 comments:
Post a Comment