I read somewhere that he didn’t actually choose her, it was some deal with New York senators in which they got to choose one of every four picks, something which would no longer be allowed. Does anyone know anything about this?
From a Byron York column 5/26/2009:
The first thing you have to understand is how judges are nominated to the federal district courts, which are below the circuit courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. The higher courts are often the stage for ideologically-based confirmation fights. The lower district courts, are, in the words of one former Bush official, “darn near patronage jobs.” Senators, even those in the opposing party from the White House, wield great power over who is nominated to the district court seats in their states. And in 1991, when Sotomayor was nominated, the Senate was controlled by Democrats, and the two senators from New York were Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Republican Alphonse D’Amato.
By a number of accounts, Moynihan and D’Amato had a longstanding arrangement. “It was a special deal whereby D’Amato agreed to defer to the pick of Moynihan for one out of every four district court seats,” another former Bush official told me. “That was a deal that preceded President Bush I, so basically Moynihan was picking one of four district court nominees.” That deal stood even though Republicans controlled the White House and thus (theoretically) the right to choose judges for the federal courts.
And at that moment, in 1991, it was Moynihan’s turn to choose, and his choice was Sotomayor. There is no evidence that anyone in the Bush I White House or Justice Department thought Sotomayor was a conservative, or even a moderate, but no one wanted a fight with Moynihan. “She was not our first choice,” recalls a third Bush I official, “but she was someone who was, if we were going to get a nominee confirmed to that position — essentially someone we had to go with.”