RE: Liberals are raging against Sotomayor over at the Washington Compost.
I’m wondering to myself — What got into Sotomayor and what made her delightfully not “liberal” in her recent ruling?
“...What got into Sotomayor and ...”
A built-in streak of natural recalcitrance, perhaps... maybe a touch of sanity... or maybe the Xanax and Midol just kicked in. Who knows...
Nothing got into her. She simply delayed the inevitable.
If she had denied the stay request, Utah would have had the right to submit it to a second justice of their choice per standard SCOTUS procedure. Utah would have chosen Scalia or Thomas. Either could, and likely would, have granted the stay or referred it to the whole court as Sotomayor did.
Sotomayor just circumvented that second stay request because she knew it was inevitable and simply referred it to the whole court herself rather than make Utah go through the legal motions.