Joe Conason on a particular nominee
Good report from Joe:
Every Supreme Court nomination is not only a strategic presidential opportunity but a clear measure of the nation’s current political dispensation. For Barack Obama, the anticipated chance to replace Justice David Souter has arrived at a time of massive political and ideological shifting that this decision can underscore. Glancing over the latest list of potential nominees, there is at least one highly qualified jurist whose selection would emphasize change — and might well lure the Republicans into yet another of the foolish mistakes that have done them so much damage.
The name of that particular nominee would be Sonia Sotomayor, daughter of a working-class Bronx family from Puerto Rico, who now serves on the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals.
Leaving aside for a moment the question of her precise place on the judicial spectrum between liberal and conservative, Sotomayor represents everything that a president choosing his first justice in his first term could desire. As a female her elevation would begin to bring gender equity to a forum where historically men have exercised far too much unchallenged power over the lives of the women. As a Latina, her rise would symbolize the next stage in the full enfranchisement of immigrants whose language, status and poverty have too often turned them into scapegoats for the cultural and economic costs of globalization.
Obama could safely ignore the predictable complaint that he had somehow excluded white males (which is already being voiced in some quarters) because, thanks to his predecessor, members of that group were awarded the last two seats on the court. Presumably he will consider other female, Hispanic and African-American candidates as the process begins, but the presumption in favor of Sotomayor is strong unless a significant problem surfaces while vetting her.
That doesn’t mean a Sotomayor nomination would encounter no opposition. In fact, the professional right-wing activists who have dominated so many judicial nomination battles are already coming after her. According to Ben Smith in Politico, one such activist is circulating a memo that brands Sotomayor a "hard left activist" judge with extreme views on affirmative action, and pillories her for saying that her life as a minority woman influences her judicial thinking. The same memo goes on to smear her as a "bully" who lacks the proper temperament to serve on the Supreme Court.
Of course, such complaints would be comical to hear in a Senate debate, coming as they would from ..…
