SEN. GRAHAM: Thank you. Let’s talk about your time as a lawyer. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund — is that right? Is that the name of the organization?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: It was then. I think it — I know it has changed names recently.
SEN. GRAHAM: Okay. How long were you a member of that organization?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Nearly 12 years.
SEN. GRAHAM: Okay.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: If not 12 years.
SEN. GRAHAM: All right. During that time, you were involved in litigation matters; is that correct?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: The fund was involved in litigations. I was a board member of the fund.
SEN. GRAHAM: Okay. Are you familiar with the position that the fund took regarding taxpayer-funded abortion? The briefs they filed?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: No, I never reviewed those briefs.
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, in their briefs they argued — and I will submit the quotes to you — that if you deny a low-income woman Medicaid funding, taxpayer funds, to have an abortion, if you deny her that, that’s a form of slavery. And I can get the quotes. Do you agree with that?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: I wasn’t aware of what was said in those briefs. Perhaps it might be helpful if I explain what the function of a board member is and what the function of the staff would be in an organization like the fund.
SEN. GRAHAM: Okay.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: In a small organization, as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund was back then, it wasn’t the size of other legal defense funds, like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund —
SEN. GRAHAM: Right.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: — or the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, which are organizations that undertook very similar work to PRLDEF. In an organization like PRLDEF, a board member’s main responsibility is to fundraise. And I’m sure that a review of the board meetings would show that that’s what we spent most of our time on. To the extent that we looked at the organization’s legal work, it was to ensure that it was consistent with the broad mission statement of the fund.
SEN. GRAHAM: Is the mission statement of the fund to include taxpayer-funded abortion?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Our mission —
SEN. GRAHAM: Was that one of the goals?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Our mission statement was broad, like the Constitution — (chuckles) —
SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: — which meant that its focus was on promoting the equal opportunities of Hispanics in the United States.
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, Judge, I’ve got — and I’ll share them with you, and we’ll talk about this more — a host of briefs for a 12-year period where the fund is advocating to the state court and the federal courts that to deny a woman taxpayer funds — low-income woman taxpayer assistance in having an abortion is a form of slavery, it’s an unspeakable cruel — cruelty to the life and health of a poor woman. Was it — was it or was it not the position of the fund to advocate taxpayer-funded abortions for low-income women?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: I wasn’t and I didn’t, as a board member, review those briefs. Our lawyers were charged with —
SEN. GRAHAM: Would it bother you if that’s what they did?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Well, I know that the fund, during the years I was there, was involved in public-health issues as it affected the Latino community. It was involved —
SEN. GRAHAM: Is abortion a public-health issue?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Well, it was certainly viewed that way generally by a number of civil-rights organizations at the time.
SEN. GRAHAM: Do you personally view it that way?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: It wasn’t a question of whether I personally viewed it that way or not. The issue was whether the law was settled on what issues the fund was advocating on behalf of the community it represented. And —
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, the fund — I’m sorry, go ahead.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: And so the question would become, was there a good-faith basis for whatever arguments they were making? As the fund’s lawyers were lawyers —
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, yeah —
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: — they had an ethical obligation.
Did she ever answer the question?
Mission statement!!??? Mission statement. Madam, go back to high school and take a damn civics course. HOLY COW! Send this woman back home pronto!
“JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Our mission statement was broad, like the Constitution — (chuckles) —”
WTF?
No Latina, it IS NOT. It is Specific and LIMITS government, stating quite clearly what it CAN NOT DO.
This wonman should not be on any bench anywhere in any court other than as a defendant in a perjury case.