US Supreme Court

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Abortion Rights Groups Uneasy With Sotomayor

Nominee has no track record of upholding right to choose

(Newser) - Advocates of abortion rights are getting jittery about Sonia Sotomayor, who, despite a decades-long paper trail, has never issued a ruling on the right to choose. Barack Obama's nominee to replace David Souter—himself famous for surprising his pro-life supporters by upholding Roe v. Wade—was raised Catholic and is...

Attacking Nominees Demeans Court
 Attacking 
 Nominees 
 Demeans Court 
OPINION

Attacking Nominees Demeans Court

(Newser) - The political attack ads popular in general elections have a profoundly negative effect on the public’s view of the Supreme Court when used during the nomination process, James L. Gibson writes fror Miller-McCune.com. “Politicized confirmation processes can indeed damage the institution of the US Supreme Court itself,...

What They'll Say to Fight Sotomayor
What They'll
Say to Fight Sotomayor
Analysis

What They'll Say to Fight Sotomayor

Critics call nominee racially insensitive, lacking intellect

(Newser) - Sonia Sotomayor’s opponents are already polishing their script, Politico reports. They’ll call her radical, racist, and stupid—albeit via softer buzzwords. She’s a “judicial activist” fond of “identity politics,” with a questionable “intellect.” Here are the charges against her:
  • She lacks “
...

Court Should Be Blind to Ethnicity: Will

We're wrong to think Court should be representational

(Newser) - Democrats are mistaken to consider the Supreme Court a representational institution, writes George Will in the Washington Post. Justices should be chosen based on their ability to uphold the law, he contends, not "categorical representation," which he detects in Sonia Sotomayor's nomination. "Her ethnicity aside, Sotomayor is...

Ooops: Socialist Quote Sure to Dog Sotomayor
Ooops: Socialist Quote Sure to Dog Sotomayor
OPINION

Ooops: Socialist Quote Sure to Dog Sotomayor

Princeton yearbook cites would-be prez Norman Thomas

(Newser) - Conservatives are likely to go crazy any second now, when they realize that Sonia Sotomayor is a (gasp) socialist. Sotomayor’s Princeton yearbook quote—“I am not a champion of lost causes, but of causes not yet won”—is from Norman Thomas, a six-time presidential candidate of the...

For Hispanics, Sotomayor Cause for Cheers, Musing

Some call her 'Jackie Robinson'; others, no 'superhero'

(Newser) - For many Hispanics watching yesterday as one of their own was nominated for the nation's highest court, it was what one New York assemblyman calls “a Jackie Robinson moment" long overdue such a sizable voting bloc. For others, though, Sonia Sotomayor's Hispanic background doesn’t necessarily make her a...

Sotomayor's Record Reveals Rigor, Little Else
Sotomayor's Record Reveals Rigor, Little Else
analysis

Sotomayor's Record Reveals Rigor, Little Else

Dispassionate rulings exhaustive, but show no larger vision

(Newser) - Sonia Sotomayor’s decisions “are not always a pleasure to read,” writes Adam Liptak of the New York Times, but “they are usually models of modern judicial craftsmanship.” They are exhaustive and technical, with even uncontroversial propositions justified with detailed footnotes. They also reveal strikingly little...

GOP Faces Battle Issues Over Sotomayor

Party split over how fiercely to fight Obama's nominee

(Newser) - The battle over Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court is beginning to heat up within the Republican Party, the Washington Post. GOP senators have been largely restrained in their response to the nomination, acknowledging that an overly aggressive position would be political suicide among Latino voters. Conservatives, meanwhile, have...

TNR's Rosen: 'Of Course' She Should Be Confirmed

He wrote critical article in use by judge's critics

(Newser) - After writing a much-discussed article in the New Republic earlier this month raising questions about the qualifications of Sonia Sotomayor, Jeffrey Rosen wants to be clear: "Of course, Judge Sotomayor should be confirmed to the Supreme Court," he blogs. Rosen complains that conservatives have adopted much of the...

'She's Tough to Pigeonhole'
 'She's Tough to Pigeonhole' 

'She's Tough to Pigeonhole'

(Newser) - Conventional wisdom says Sonia Sotomayor—who grew up poor in the Bronx—would be a reliable liberal vote on the Supreme Court. Those who know her well tell the Washington Post that she has too much respect for the law to be blinded by ideology, a trait that first surfaced...

GOP Can't Stop Her, But They Can Look 'Silly'
GOP Can't Stop Her,
But They Can Look 'Silly'
analysis

GOP Can't Stop Her, But They Can Look 'Silly'

(Newser) - Sonia Sotomayor can take these numbers to heart as she awaits her Senate confirmation hearing. When she needed Senate approval for her current post in 1998, she got it by a vote of 67-29 (with not a single Democratic nay). Forty-six of those senators are still in office, and they...

Limbaugh Calls Sotomayor 'Reverse Racist'

He urges Republicans to 'go to the wall' to oppose her

(Newser) - Rush Limbaugh took some calculated shots at Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on his show today, calling her a "reverse racist," a "hack," and "an affirmative action case extraordinaire," notes Mark Halperin's The Page blog at Time. Limbaugh—who punctuated his criticisms with the...

Women Indeed Dominated Obama's Court List: Insiders

With field narrowed to 4, prez slept on it

(Newser) - President Obama's short list for his Supreme Court pick consisted of four women: Solicitor General Elana Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, US Court of Appeals judge Diane Wood, and the eventual selection, Sonia Sotomayor. By Friday, Obama thought he was ready to make the pick, but decided to take...

5 Judges Obama Never Considered
 5 Judges Obama 
 Never Considered 
OPINION

5 Judges Obama Never Considered

We guarantee Obama never considered any of these schmucks

(Newser) - Barack Obama probably never sat down to consider the worst possible contenders for David Souter’s Supreme Court vacancy. But the guys at The Stimulist did. Here are the top (bottom?) five judges who never had a shot:
  • Myron Steele: Used his government email address to send a lewd video
...

Cops Can Question Suspects Sans Lawyer: High Court

Conservatives overturn 1986 case in 5-4 decision

(Newser) - The Supreme Court today overturned a longstanding ruling that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer is present, a move that will make it easier for prosecutors to interrogate suspects. The court’s conservatives, in a 5-4 victory, overturned a 1986 ruling that applied even to defendants who...

Colleagues See Sotomayor as 'Even-Handed,' 'Brilliant'

Daughter of immigrants rose from Bronx project

(Newser) - The daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants whose father died when she was 9, Sonia Sotomayor will bring more than a stellar legal resume to her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the Washington Post reports. She worked her way out of projects in the Bronx to graduate from Princeton and Yale Law,...

Why Sotomayor's a Lock
 Why Sotomayor's a Lock 
OPINION

Why Sotomayor's a Lock

Savvy Obama's pick would be political suicide for the GOP to oppose

(Newser) - The way to really win a fight is to be in too strong a position for it to even start, and President Obama is showing some of that kind of savvy with his Supreme Court pick, writes Mark Halperin in Time. Nominating Sonia Sotomayor maneuvers Republicans into a position where...

Obama Picks Sotomayor for Court
 Obama Picks 
 Sotomayor for Court 
UPDATED

Obama Picks Sotomayor for Court

(Newser) - Barack Obama named Sonia Sotomayor his Supreme Court pick this morning, the AP reports, setting the 54-year-old appeals court judge up to be the high court’s first Hispanic justice. Obama noted that she'd "worked at almost every level of our judicial system," saying she had more experience...

How to Diversify the Court: Pick a WASP
How to Diversify the Court:
Pick a WASP
Analysis

How to Diversify the Court: Pick a WASP

...Or a non-lawyer, or a public school grad, or a Westerner, or...

(Newser) - If you’re looking to diversify the Supreme Court, Robert Barnes of the Washington Post has an idea: Why not pick a WASP? There hasn’t been a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant nominated since David Souter in 1990. The current court boasts five Catholics and two Jews—not exactly representative. Of...

Top Court Candidates Differ Widely on Exec Power

New justice will be key to defining prez limits

(Newser) - Most Supreme Court watchers say that Barack Obama's choice to succeed David Souter will change little, since the retiring justice was a reliable member of the court's liberal bloc. But on critical questions of presidential power, which Souter regularly sought to check, the new justice's vote could...

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