This clip is all over the 'Net. Federal Appeals Court judge Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama's pick to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter, is caught on tape in a not-so-Freudian slip saying that the appeals court "is where policy is made." Scary but not at all out of "character" when you consider that Sotomayor, who reportedly has a hight opinion of herself, has said that she "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." If that is truly the case then only "wise Latina women" with the "richness" of Sotomayor's experience should be named to judgeships from now on. Such arrogance and prejudice would not be tolerated in "a white male who hasn't lived that life."
Earlier this month, Bush White House strategist Karl Rove gave a prophetic interview to Fox News regarding the possibility of Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court:
Rove is right once again when he states that "you can't be someone who strictly applies the law and somebody who is going to to make their determinations based on your personal feelings towards the defendant or the plaintiff in your attempt to sort of right a wrong that the law might not allow you to do."
Judicial Confirmation Network court counsel Wendy E. Long issued the following statement regarding Sotomayor's nomination: "Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written. "She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one's sex, race and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench."
LongJudges are not elected officials. They do not make policy, they interpret law. As now Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts famously said during his 2005 confirmation hearing,
"Mr. Chairman, I come before the committee with no agenda. I have no platform. Judges are not politicians who can promise to do certain things in exchange for votes. I have no agenda but I do have a commitment. If I am confirmed, I will confront every case with an open mind. I will fully and fairly analyze the legal arguments that are presented. I will be open to the considered views of my colleagues on the bench. And I will decide every case based on the record, according to the rule of law, without fear or favor, to the best of my ability. And I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes and not pitch or bat."
Roberts
