NYT: The New Justice

[steven johnson]

The GOP 'noise machine' will paint Sotomayor as a doctrinaire liberal. Their real problem is that she is a pragmatist who when there is a tie doesn't automatically give the decision to big money, corporations and religious fundamentalists. In other words, she reflects the majority of the US population who reject ultra-right dogma. Damned inconvenient for right wing social engineering and conservative activist judges, in my opinion.

Published: May 27, 2009
President Obama seems to have made an inspired choice in picking Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. She has an impressive judicial record, a stellar academic background and a compelling life story. Judge Sotomayor would also be a trailblazing figure in the mold of Thurgood Marshall, becoming the first member of the nation's large and growing but still under-represented Hispanic population to serve on the court.


Her legal experience is impressive and wide-ranging. She spent five years as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office and was a partner in a commercial litigation firm. She has been a federal judge for 16 years, serving on both a district court, where she presided over trials, and an appellate court. As a member of the New York-based United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, she is known for being smart, extraordinarily well prepared and deeply engaged.
In her rulings, Judge Sotomayor has repeatedly displayed the empathy Mr. Obama has said he is looking for in a justice. She has listened attentively to, and often ruled in favor of, people who have been discriminated against, defendants and other groups that are increasingly getting short shrift in the federal courts. She has shown little patience for the sort of procedural bars that conservative judges have been using to close the courthouse door on people whose rights have been violated.

Conservative activists have already begun trying to paint Judge Sotomayor as a liberal ideologue, but her carefully reasoned, fact-based decisions indicate otherwise. In many ways, her approach to the law is similar to that of Justice David Souter, whose seat she would take.

Judge Sotomayor, though, is more than just a distinguished member of two underrepresented groups. She is an accomplished lawyer and judge, who could become an extraordinary Supreme Court justice.



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/opinion/27wed1.html