Sotomayor’s Smoking Gun
Jul 13, 2009 18 Comments ›› Erik Wong
by Tom Bowden
On the eve of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Politico.com was reporting that “Republicans have yet to uncover a smoking gun in Sotomayor’s past, and her confirmation is seen by many as a fait accompli.â€
This says a lot about the Senate’s inability (on both sides of the aisle) to recognize a smoking gun when they see it.
In previous posts, I’ve discussed the oft-quoted public speech in which she rhapsodized about “how wonderful and magical it is to have a Latina soul.†In that speech, which she later authorized to be reprinted as a law review article, Sotomayor publicly declared that judicial impartiality is just a pipe dream, that judges can’t be objective because “
ersonal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see,†and as a result “‘there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives.’â€This speech not just a smoking gun—it’s an atomic blast meant to obliterate the rule of law. Any senator of either party who cannot see the implications of Sotomayor’s views is intellectually unequipped to perform the kind of searching review the Founders intended when they required advice and consent of the Senate for Supreme Court nominations.
