Posted on 04/11/2016 7:30:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Not everyone is a fan of putting Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court and we’re not just talking about Senate Republicans here. Though the complaints are a bit veiled, it sounds as if Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor isn’t exactly leading the Garland cheering section either. In an address she delivered at the Brooklyn School of Law, Sotomayor made an oblique reference to Garland when she bemoaned the lack of “diversity” on the bench and why it would be important to judge prospective nominees, at least in part, on factors other than their judicial bona fides. (Time)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Friday that greater diversity on the high court is important, in comments made shortly after President Barack Obama once again urged a vote on his Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
“I, for one, do think there is a disadvantage from having (five) Catholics, three Jews, everyone from an Ivy League school,” Sotomayor said during a talk at Brooklyn Law School, adding that several of the justices are from New York City and none of them have a background in criminal defense law outside of white-collar crime, the Associated Press reported.
Sotomayor said varied backgrounds help justices to consider and understand issues differently, based on their experience.
“A different perspective can permit you to more fully understand the arguments that are before you and help you articulate your position in a way that everyone will understand,” she said.
This, in a nutshell, demonstrates just how far afield we’ve run from the basic idea of justice and the rule of law. It’s on display with many of the arguments we see put forward by Democratic supporters of the President, but it’s particularly alarming when it’s coming from someone currently seated on the highest court in the land. Before going further, I’d like to share an image with Justice Sotomayor which may indeed be worth a thousand words.
Those are lovely sentiments she shared during her speech, but they speak more to the tapestry of American culture. What they are supposed to have nothing to do with is justice and the rule of law. Justice is blind for a reason. Human beings, including those wearing robes and handing down decisions, are the flawed vessels who must interpret the laws, but the laws themselves must apply to everyone equally. They have to be blind to color, religion, gender, economic background and all the other factors. The rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, are all supposed to stand before the bar at the same height. And that goes for those who must interpret those laws as well as those who face a trial.
But now we clearly live in an era where checking off the boxes for various demographic pigeonholes carries more weight than boring old ideas such as qualifications or experience. It’s not what the law says or intends, so much as how you feel about it and how it impacted your personal experience growing up. It’s a sad statement.
That was some unexpected criticism of the Garland pick to be sure, but the President has chosen a new tactic in defending his choice and pushing for a hearing. In Chicago this week, Obama claimed that stonewalling his nomination could imperil the very roots of democracy. (The Atlantic)
In Chicago on Thursday, Obama elevated the stakes: He suggested this kind of polarization would effectively break the judicial branch. If the courts are more politicized, citizens will “lose confidence” in judges’ ability to be fair and to issue legitimate rulings. “It’s not just a matter of who’s occupying that ninth seat in the Supreme Court,” he said. “It has to do with how we as a democracy operate.” He suggested Republican inaction could precede Democratic inaction years from now, when a conservative is in the White House looking to fill a seat. It is “inconceivable,” he said, to expect Democrats to agree to hearings and a vote in the future if Republicans don’t hold them now.
In some ways I actually agree with the President on this score. The system has been broken for years. Both Democrats and Republicans apply such litmus tests to Supreme Court nominees that nobody with an original thought is likely to make it through the process. It’s completely politicized. But I’m not fooled into thinking that Barack Obama has any interest in ending that particular battle. These are simply rationalizations meant to get his own brand of bias pushed through before he leaves office.
For once I agree with her.
NO MORE IVY LEAGUERS on SCOTUS!!
What the Supreme Court needs is less of Sonya Sotomayor
and the other unlawfully appointed justices.
“All Of A Sudden....Seven Short Years Have Passed!
Before Obama there was virtually no outlandish presence of Islam in America....
• All of a sudden, Islam is taught in schools. Christianity and the bible are banned in schools.
• All of a sudden we must allow prayer rugs everywhere and allow for Islamic prayer in schools, airports and businesses.
• All of a sudden we must stop serving pork in prisons.
• All of a sudden we are inundated with law suits by Muslims who are offended by American culture.
• All of a sudden we must allow burkas to be worn everywhere even though you have no idea who or what is covered up under them.
• All of a sudden Muslims are suing employers and refusing to do their jobs if they personally deem it conflicts with Sharia Law.
• All of a sudden the Attorney General of the United States vows to prosecute anyone who engages in “anti-Muslim speech”.
• All of a sudden, Jihadists who engage in terrorism and openly admit they acted in the name of Islam and ISIS, are emphatically declared they are NOT Islamic by our leaders and/or their actions are determined NOT to be terrorism, but other nebulous terms like ‘workplace violence.”
• All of a sudden, it becomes Policy that Secular Middle East dictators that were benign or friendly to the West, must be replaced by Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood.
• All of a sudden our troops are withdrawn from Iraq and the middle east, giving rise to ISIS.
• All of a sudden, America has reduced its nuclear stockpiles to 1950 levels, as Obama’s stated goal of a nuke-free America by the time he leaves office continues uninterrupted.
• All of a sudden, a deal with Iran must be made at any cost, with a pathway to nuclear weapons and HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars handed over to fund their programs.
• All of a sudden America APOLOGIZES to Muslim states and sponsors of terror worldwide for acts of aggression, war and sabotage THEY perpetrate against our soldiers.
• All of a sudden, the American Navy is diminished to 1917 Pre-World War I levels of only 300 ships. The Army is at pre-1940 levels. The Air Force scraps 500 planes and planned to retire the use of the A-10 Thunderbolt close air support fighter. A further draw down of another 40,000 military personnel is in progress.
• All of a sudden half of our aircraft carriers are recalled for maintenance by Obama rendering the Atlantic unguarded, NONE are in the Middle East.
• All of a sudden Obama has to empty Guantanamo Bay of captured Jihadists and let them loose in Jihad-friendly Islamic states. He demands to close the facility.
• All of a sudden America will negotiate with terrorists and trade FIVE Taliban commanders for a deserter and Jihad sympathizer.
• All of a sudden there is no money for American poor, disabled veterans, jobless Americans, hungry Americans, or displaced Americans but there is endless money for Obama’s “Syrian refugee” resettlement programs.
• All of sudden there is an ammunition shortage in the USA.
• All of a sudden, the most important thing for Obama to do after a mass shooting by two Jihadists, is disarm American Citizens.
* All of a sudden, the President of the United States cannot attend the Christian Funerals of a Supreme Court Justice and a former First Lady because of previous (seemingly unimportant) commitments.
All of a sudden, I am sick to my stomach.”
The only law degrees on the Supreme Court are from Harvard and Yale with Harvard dominating. Scalia included.
That works. I was thinking more diversity of common sense, so hopefully she would set the example and quit, so she could be replaced with someone that has some.
They need more lesbians?
How about a Protestant?
Son-Ya probably knows a black lesbian from Skokie who could fill Scalia’s shoes
Agree. There are not enough conservatives.
Diversity already there. Black, Jewish, Hispanic, Female, Male, White, Lesbian.
They also own the Executive branch. The last non-Ivy League president was Reagan - it's been nothing but Ivy League asshats ever since.
Two of three branches of our government are completely controlled by former students of a few hundred hardcore globalist leftist professors.
Isn’t American Idol finally ending. How about putting those judges on the Supreme Court, they would be better than Sotomayor and they certainly know more about the law.
Of course it does.
Question. What percentage of white people is acceptable?
50% , 40%, 30%? How about 0%? Wake up white man...
Selective history for the ‘Progressives’. It’s as if Robert Bork never happened.
No. What the SCOTUS really needs is pink slips. Let the American people decide how we want to live. The current problem with SCOTUS is that there is already TOO MUCH “diversity” and it always leans to the left.
They can appoint me. I’m protestant. I didn’t go to any Ivy League law school. I will exercise judicial restraint, and follow the letter of the Constitution.
But you might not like all of my decisions. Some of the current controversies before the Court I would have no problem dumping back into the lap of the United States Congress with the admonition that they stop acting like spoiled children and start doing their job as defined by the Constitution. It’s not up to the Courts to impose their judgments on policy decisions that should be made in Congress.
What if she did that transgender thing? That might be amusing.
Diversity Kills
It would be nice to have a justice that could read a law and not rewrite in in their image. This country was not built on unpredictable political change like recently but steady work mostly in the same direction. Lately every politician has to pull the levers and push the buttons to their own end not for the best of the country.
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