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Sotomayor: ‘Rule of Law Basis for All Our Basic Rights’ |
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Sonia Sotomayor grew up in a South Bronx, N.Y., housing project after her parents moved there from Puerto Rico during World War II. Today, she is a U.S. Senate confirmation vote away from taking a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
President Obama today nominated the U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the 2nd Circuit to the High Court where, if confirmed, she would be the first Hispanic to serve. Says Obama:
What Sonia will bring to the court…is not only the knowledge and experience acquired over a course of a brilliant legal career, but the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life’s journey.
Praising her nomination, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says Sotomayor possesses a “direct and personal understanding of the struggles America’s workers endure every day.”
She grew up in public housing in the Bronx, the daughter of a factory worker, and understands the real world consequences of the decisions she makes from the bench.
During this morning’s White House announcement, Sotomayor said:
I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights…[and will] never forget the real-world consequences of my decisions.
Valedictorian of her high school class, Sotomayor won a scholarship to Princeton University and earned her law degree at Yale University, where she served as editor of the Yale Law Review.
Sotomayor, 54, has served as prosecutor, litigator, trial court and appellate court judge. She was first appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush and to her current seat on the federal appeals bench in 1997 by President Bill Clinton. Pointing to her wide legal experience, Obama says:
Walking in the door, she would bring more experience on the bench and more varied experience on the bench than anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court had when they were appointed.
Sweeney says Sotomayor “has consistently interpreted our labor laws in the manner in which they were intended.”
She has enforced the right to be free of all types of discrimination in the workplace, to be paid the correct wages and to receive health benefits to which employees are entitled. She has recognized that persecution for union activity can be a basis for granting asylum in this country.
Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), says that along with her “common sense understanding of how laws affect the realties of people’s daily lives,
Judge Sotomayor is also the first Latino to be nominated to the high court. She is a first generation American and grew up in the South Bronx—fulfilling another of President Obama’s promises to add diversity of background to the Supreme Court.
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you are way incorrect - she is a disaster in a skirt with a big smile - she is consistently ultra-right-wing endorsed - and promoted by the worst of the worst neocons - Obama is out of his mind, or his true nature is coming out - she is corporate- anti-discrimination plaintiffs, opposing the rights of airline crash victims to sue, and opposing women’s rights to choose across the board -
do not be fooled, and do not jump on the Sotomayor bandwagon without researching Rachel Maddow’s /MSNBC website. please!
I’m not too certain about many of her decisions which seem to favor corporations over individuals. At first blush, she seems perfect, I think a deeper exploration of her anti-trust opinions, labor vs. corporation opinions are necessary. She seems closer to Alito and Scalia on labor v mgt.
When one considers that Sotomayor was first appointed by a Republican President and confirmed by a Democratic Congress; and then by a Democratic President and confirmed by a Republican Congress, there should be no probalem with the ocnfirmation.
That said, however, I’m sure the right wing lunatics will find some of her comments to take out of context and slam her.
The left calls her a right wing extremist, the right calls her a left wing extremist. I will hold my opinion until the dust settles and I can see more clearly.
check out the information on Rachel Maddow’s website - it is extensive and thought-provoking, and leads me to conclude that Sotomayor is a nightmare waiting to happen.
Well, she is supposedly a moderate at best. Yet ironically, the Republicans are still going to have a good time blocking her appointment anyway. I personally would much rather see a person with a proven liberal perspective. That said, Souter was not considered to be very progressive when he was nominated, but apparently he surprised a lot of people as he moved left of center in his positions. As long as Sotomayer really does believe in the rule of law and “does not forget the real world consequences of my decisions” she may prove to be an excellent, non partisan, non ideologue Justice, and goodness knows we could use more of them, in all our courts!
Just what we need a racist woman on the Supreme Court,as a white male American,I take offense at any person that considers themseves Latino before American and thinks that all white males are incapable of being fair and unbiased.This kind of thinking has no place in the Supreme Court or any other court.If she is not bright enough to keep this kind of thought out of the public domain she must really be brillant.
Here is an important “perspectives” article about the Sotomayer nomination.
The fundamental social division is class, not race or gender
28 May 2009
by Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/pers-m28.shtml
The introduction of Sonia Sotomayor as President Obama’s first selection for the US Supreme Court took place at a White House media event of a completely choreographed and stereotyped character. Such ceremonies have become an essential part of how America is governed. The less the political system is capable of actually responding to the needs and aspirations of working people, the more it must put on the pretense of concern, using biography as a substitute for policy.
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Totally obliterated in this flood of commentary is the most fundamental social category in American society: class. Sotomayor will go to the Supreme Court, not as the representative or advocate of Hispanics, women or the socially disadvantaged more generally, but as the representative of a definite social class at the top of American society—the financial aristocracy whose interests she and every other federal judge, and the entire capitalist state machine, loyally serve and defend.
Only one “mainstream” bourgeois publication focused on this critical question. That was the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial page serves as a major voice of the ultra-right—denouncing the Sotomayor nomination in strident tones—but whose news pages explored her record as a well-paid commercial litigator and federal judge, on issues of direct interest to big business, including contract law, employment and property rights.”
The newspaper quoted several Wall Street lawyers describing Sotomayor as a safe choice for corporate America. “There is no reason for the business community to be concerned,” said one attorney.
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For the past 12 years for instance, under two Democratic presidents and one Republican, the post of US Secretary of State has been occupied by, in succession, a white woman, a black man, a black woman, and a white woman. This exercise in “diversity” has not the slightest progressive significance. It has not democratized American foreign policy or made it one iota more conciliatory to the interests of the oppressed, either internationally or within the United States. Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton are all representatives, not of “blacks” or “women,” but of the most rapacious imperialist ruling class on the planet.”
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The political development of the American working class requires, first and foremost, the direct and open discussion of the class realities of American society. No country in the world is as deeply and intractably divided along economic lines as the United States, where the top 1 percent of the population owns 40 percent of the wealth and monopolizes 20 percent of the income. Any analysis of the political issues facing working people that does not take these class divisions as the fundamental reality is an exercise in deception and political stultification.