President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court

“The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

President Obama announcing Federal Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) Judge
Sonia Sotomayor as his nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court (photo courtesy of NY Times).

On Tuesday, President Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his nomination for the Supreme Court. Justice Sotomayor is a federal judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York and will replace Justice David Souter, who had served on the high court for 19 years. If confirmed, she will be the third woman justice and the first Hispanic justice to serve on the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican immigrants and raised in a South-Bronx housing project. She was raised primarily by her mother (who was in attendance) after her father, Juan Sotomayor, died when she was 9 years old. In an emotional address yesterday, Sotomayor shared her life story, saying her "heart was bursting with gratitude" for her mother's hard work, sacrifice and unrelenting emphasis on education.

After earning an academic scholarship, Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and earned her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. In 1991 she was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H. W. Bush (as part of a compromise with New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan). President Bill Clinton nominated her to the Federal Court of Appeals in 1997.

Sonia's nomination is so significant precisely because of the life experience and perspective she, once confirmed, will bring to the Supreme Court; an institution traditionally dominated by older, white men. Her biography truly embodies the American Dream and unlike many of the justices - past and current - she has a true understanding of the hardships the average American experiences on a daily basis. In addition to her considerable intellectual abilities, her Puerto Rican heritage - which she proudly embraces - is a welcome and necessary addition of diversity which reflects the "browning", global society we live in. She will enrich the Supreme Court by bringing a perspective and insight the Court has never had within its ranks.

Indeed, unlike previous minority justices such as Clarence Thomas and Benjamin Cardozo (who, despite his Cuban and Israeli heritage, is not considered Hispanic), Judge Sotomayor has repeatedly emphasized the important role her ethnicity and gender play in informing her legal perspective. In a 2002 lecture she said, “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" (NY Times.com).

Interestingly however, despite her rhetoric, Judge Sotomayor has not ruled on any truly hot button issues in her career and she has been described as a political centrist. According to New York Times legal analyst Adam Litpak:

"Judge Sotomayor has issued no major decisions concerning abortion, the death penalty, gay rights or national security. In cases involving criminal defendants, employment discrimination and free speech, her rulings are more liberal than not.

But they reveal no larger vision, seldom appeal to history and studiously avoid quotable language. Judge Sotomayor’s decisions are, instead, almost always technical, incremental and exhaustive, considering all of the relevant precedents and supporting even completely uncontroversial propositions with elaborate footnotes."

I believe she will display reliably liberal tendences as a Supreme Court justice. In fact, the question of what degree she will allow her personal opinions to shape her legal decisions is at the heart of Republican concern and will be the main point of any potential challenge to her nomination.

Conservative Republican groups have already condemned the President's selection. The Judicial Confirmation Network, a right-wing activist group, sent out an email which labelled Sotomayor an "activist judge of the first order"; a sentiment echoed by ultra-conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh who added his personal desire to see Sotomayor fail in her career on the Supreme Court.

Yet despite the predictable outcry from conservative pundits and interest groups, the Republican Party is in a real bind with this choice (how brilliant of a political strategist is President Obama??), for two reasons. First, the Democrats, possessing 59 seats in the Senate, pretty much have the 60 votes required for breaking a filibuster on lockdown. Thus, as Senate Republicans have indicated, barring some unforseen revelation, they stand little chance of opposing her nomination. Secondly, they do not want to risk the political injury by being perceived as standing against the first Latina justice; a potential risk that is greatly magnified given Republicans' current lack of popularity in the Hispanic community.

Many Republicans, sensing the precarious position they are in, expressed cautious, measured reactions to Sotomayor's nomination. Michael Steele, Republican National Committee chairman embodied this hesitance when asked to comment on Barack's choice: "Republicans will reserve judgment on Sonia Sotomayor until there has been a thorough and thoughtful examination of her legal views.”

[I for one am very excited about the continued advancement of the Barack Era. Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination - and inevitable confirmation - signaled a great moment for this administration and for the country. I am anxious to see her impact on the Supreme Court and to see how she uses her new position to answer the important legal questions of the future.]

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