New Justice Nominee Named

President Obama revealed earlier today who is nominee for the Supreme Court will be, replacing Justice Souter who announced his retirement earlier this year.  Judge Sonya Sotomayor was named earlier today in a White House ceremony.  Both sides are gearing up for a fight, and it should be a fun one.

To start with, during a 1997 nomination hearing, Judge Sotomayor said “I don’t believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.”  This is definitely what I want to hear.  Unfortunately, her history doesn’t hold up.

To start with, she has also been quoted as saying, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male.”  We are all Americans with our own unique experiences.  Making such an ignorant statement about the “richness” of my experiences is ridiculous at best and bigoted at worst.  While I have no doubts about Judge Sotomayor’s experiences, what does this have to do with Constitutional law?  The purpose of the judicial branch of government is to interpret law based on the Constitution, not the “richness” of her experiences.

Of course, Judge Sotomayor’s opinions of the Constitution which shouldn’t be bent under any circumstances is obvious in the case of white firefighters from New Haven, Conn.  Judge Sotomayor sided with the city of New Haven who threw out test results because not enough blacks passed.  The question has nothing to do with the tests themselves, only the number of African Americans who actually passed it.  Who cares about the white and Latino firefighter who busted their butts and passed it.  Nope, we must give preferential treatment to one group over all others apparently, despite the concept of equal protection under the law that is quite clearly in the Constitution.

Of course, the liberal machine is digging in already.  The Daily Kos is already running out the Republicans’ comments regarding the nomination as if there is something wrong with disagreement, calling them “predictable attacks.”   Of course, Daily Kos doesn’t mention that they’re “predictable” because there’s a measure of truth to them.  It’s only a shame that this truth wasn’t seen within the Republican ranks in such quantities until after their removal from power in November.

Of course, if some want to make this about partisan politics, they will.  It shouldn’t be.  Instead, it should be about the United States Constitution, something that it hasn’t been about in a long, long time.  Perhaps in time our politicians will remove their craniums from the waste evacuation orifices and get back to honoring their oaths to “support and defend the Constitution”.

Of course, I have a better chance of winning the lottery on the same night I win twelve Oscars and six Grammys.