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Sotomayor, posted May 27, 2009 at 12:11 PM

President Obama has made his Supreme Court pick and now it's up to us to complain. Heh heh. Here's my view....

PROS
-Finally another woman, thank god. This was a no-brainer. After Bush's Miers fiasco, and with Ginsburg's cancer diagnosis, this pick simply had to be a woman. And I'd argue that the next one--whether to replace Ginsburg or someone else--should also be a woman.
-Finally an Hispanic. Not only does choosing a Puerto Rican bring needed diversity to the Court, it's good politics. Hispanic politics are a wedge for Republicans. For certain issues, the Republicans are a natural fit for Hispanics. And for so many other reasons, they're a terrible match. So now if the Repubs viciously tear down the first Latina SC nominee, they risk further alienating the entire Hispanic community. The GOP is wrong on immigration, wrong on border issues, wrong on civil rights, and wrong on economic issues that working people care about. Let's let them go to town on Sotomayor and dig themselves deeper into the hole they've already started. I predict Obama's 2012 numbers will reflect a larger Hispanic vote percentage than he got in 2008.
-She's obviously qualified. Unlike Miers, who was picked for being a Bush crony and being a woman, and Thomas, who was a dim undistinguished judge who was picked because he was a Republican mouth-piece and an African-American, Sotomayor's got stellar credentials.
-She seems to rely heavily on precedent. That's a pro when the precedents have been set by the likes of Brennan and Marshall.

CONS
-She's too old. Sorry, but Bush stacked the court with young-un's. Obama needed to pick someone in their mid-40s, not their mid-50s.
-She's not staunchly liberal enough. I know I know, beggars can't be choosers, but again, Bush did a great job of pushing the conservative wing of the court ever-more rightward. I want Obama to push the court progressively. I know that Obama's a middle-of-the-road politician who doesn't want an ideologically divided court anymore than he wants an ideologically divided country. Sotomayor's a great fit for Obama, but she's not a great fit for progressives. I want judges cut from the same cloth as Brennan and Marshall, please. (I do realize that their outspokenness would probably prevent them from being confirmed by today's screwed-up Senate).
-She seems to rely heavily on precedent. That's a con when the precedents have been set by the likes of Scalia and Rehnquist.

UNKNOWNS
-I sincerely hope she has paid her fucking taxes.

FURTHER READING
-Here's a great resource for reading about the judicial opinion's she's written: concise and helpful summaries courtesy of SCOTUS Blog.


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