Evidently, political suicide is not palatable to Republicans.
Senator Sessions also states Sotomayor deserves an “up or down” vote.
On the other side we have more racist rants.
Not being a legal scholar, I can still read an opinion and deduce the core of it. Digested versions of Sotomayor’s opinions are here, here, here, here and here, with more at Christy Hardin Smith. Judge Sotomayor leans left. However, she’s ruled in favor of abortion rights protesters, but also questioned the Gag Rule. See Scotusblog:
Abortion Rights: Although Sotomayor has not had a case dealing directly with abortion rights, she wrote the opinion in Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush, 304 F.3d 183 (2d Cir. 2002), a challenge to the “Mexico City Policy,” which prohibited foreign organizations receiving U.S. funds from performing or supporting abortions. An abortion rights group (along with its attorneys) brought claimed that the policy violated its First Amendment, due process, and equal protection rights. Relying on the Second Circuit’s earlier decision in Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Agency for International Development, which dealt with a virtually identical claim, Sotomayor’s opinion rejected the group’s First Amendment claim on the merits. Turning to the plaintiffs’ due process claim, Sotomayor held that they lacked standing because they alleged only a harm to foreign organizations, rather than themselves. Sotomayor held that the plaintiffs did have standing with regard to their equal protection claim, but she ultimately held that the claim failed under rational basis review because the government “is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position” with public funds.
BeliefNet has a provocative post up on Sotomayor, asking if she’s “an abortion centrist,” whatever that means.
One wonders what liberals will think when Judge Sotomayor becomes a Supreme Court Justice, but turns out to be an independent mind leveling opinions that don’t track with the average litmus test every time, which has certainly been the case so far.
However, a litmus test on ideology was not Pres. Obama’s bar for his nominee to clear. That’s what may hit home more than anything once Sotomayor is on the Court. Because barring some yet unearthed investigative bombshell, that’s where she’s headed.
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