Supreme Court

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Justices Are Emotional Creatures
Justices Are Emotional Creatures
OPINION
May 29, 2009 8:47 AM CDT

Justices Are Emotional Creatures

Brooks: Don't worry about dispassion; it's just a myth

(Newser) - America’s legal system “is based on a useful falsehood,” writes David Brooks of the New York Times. It assumes that judges are objective, almost robotic, executors of law. They’re not. “In reality, decisions are made by imperfect minds in ambiguous circumstances.” The question isn’...

Gibbs: Don't Worry About Sotomayor on Abortion

Past rulings unrelated to her pro-choice stance

(Newser) - President Obama nominated a candidate for Supreme Court with almost no record on abortion. Now, reports the Washington Post, he’s in the unexpected position of defending Sonia Sotomayor to his party’s pro-choice base. Spokesman Robert Gibbs went out of his way yesterday to suggest that Obama—who didn't...

Noonan: Time for Republicans to Grow Up
Noonan: Time for Republicans to Grow Up
OPINION
May 29, 2009 7:06 AM CDT

Noonan: Time for Republicans to Grow Up

Sotomayor hearings a time for debate, not attacks by 'idiots'

(Newser) - Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings are coming up, and Peggy Noonan has some advice for Republicans: play grown-up. “Some, and they are idiots, look at Judge Sotomayor and say: attack, attack, kill,” she writes in the Wall Street Journal. One told her the fight would excite the base....

Sotomayor's Assertive Style Rankles Some Critics

(Newser) - In the jargon of lawyers, Sonia Sotomayor runs a "hot bench." Meaning she is assertive, thorough, and unafraid to grill attorneys. Her supporters see it as a valuable quality, one that shows off her meticulous preparation and ensures she's got a handle on the case at hand, reports...

'Nutty Old White Men' Vex GOP With Sotomayor Slams

(Newser) - GOP operatives opposed to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor aren’t happy about the “help” they’re getting from Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh, CQ Politics reports. Limbaugh called the nominee a “bigot” for saying “a wise Latina woman” will often make better decisions than a white...

Sotomayor Has Wide Support: Poll

She's popular, but not as much as Justice Roberts was

(Newser) - Nearly half of Americans consider Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court an "excellent" or "good" development, while just 13% judge her a "poor" choice, a Gallup poll finds. Respondents split along party lines, with 28% of Republicans and just 1% of Democrats deeming the nomination...

Obama Loses 'Empathy' Line After GOP Sullies Phrase

(Newser) - “Empathy” was a key part of President Obama’s vocabulary when he first started talking about his Supreme Court nominee, Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times, but the word has disappeared. “Conservatives have hijacked empathy and turned it into an epithet,” Stolberg writes. When...

Sotomayor Vote Carries Risks for These Senators
Sotomayor Vote Carries Risks for These Senators
Analysis
May 28, 2009 9:02 AM CDT

Sotomayor Vote Carries Risks for These Senators

Judiciary committee members share spotlight with nominee

(Newser) - Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation looks likely, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be some drama between here and there. Politico runs down which senators have the most to win—and the most to lose:  
  • Patrick Leahy: Facing his first nominee as judiciary chairman, Leahy’s eager to
...

Sotomayor Aced 2 Previous Senate Hearings

Tough questioning from GOP didn't faze court nominee

(Newser) - Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are still debating how tough they'll be at Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, but as the Washington Post reports, the Supreme Court nominee doesn't buckle under pressure. In the long-delayed 1997 hearing that elevated her to the Second Circuit, Sotomayor survived a GOP grilling on...

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
May 27, 2009 3:53 PM CDT

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
May 27, 2009 10:13 AM CDT

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
May 27, 2009 8:36 AM CDT

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
May 27, 2009 7:19 AM CDT

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' 
May 26, 2009 8:38 PM CDT

'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
May 26, 2009 6:12 PM CDT

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...

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