Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
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Obama nominates NewyoRican female to SCOTUS
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We need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.
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Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly View PostBut there's no way Sotomayor is actually unqualified -- quite teh opposite -- and beyond that, it's all, always, politics.We need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.
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Frankly, I don't know about her qualifications.
Here is Glenn Greenwald's take on the identity politics/empathy uproar:
Justice Sam Alito on empathy and judging
(updated below)
As is true for any Supreme Court nominee, there are many legitimate questions to raise about Sonia Sotomayor, but the smear attacks on her as some sort of "identity politics" poster child -- which are still being justified largely if not entirely by the Jeffrey Rosen/TNR gossipy hit piece on her -- are nothing short of disgusting. As Anonymous Liberal put it: "Apparently, the only way to avoid 'identity politics' is to pick white men for every job." Both Adam Serwer and Daniel Larison note the glaring, obvious hypocrisy in simultaneously insisting that "empathy" has no place in the law while protesting Sotomayor's decision in Ricci on the completely law-free ground that what happened to the white firefighters is so "unfair." And Matt Yglesias writes that he is "really truly deeply and personally pissed off my the tenor of a lot of the commentary on Sonia Sotomayor" and, in a separate post, notes the wildly different treatment between Sotomayor and Sam Alito despite very similar records.
With regard to that last point -- how completely different is the reaction to Sam Alito and Sonia Sotomayor -- just consider this exchange that took place at the beginning of Alito's confirmation hearing (h/t sysprog):
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court
U.S. SENATOR TOM COBURN (R-OK): Can you comment just about Sam Alito, and what he cares about, and let us see a little bit of your heart and what's important to you in life?
ALITO: Senator, I tried to in my opening statement, I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and how my background and my experiences have shaped me and brought me to this point.
ALITO: I don't come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.
And I know about their experiences and I didn't experience those things. I don't take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.
But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives.
And that's why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.
And so it's my job to apply the law. It's not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.
But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country."
When I have cases involving children, I can't help but think of my own children and think about my children being treated in the way that children may be treated in the case that's before me.
And that goes down the line. When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who's been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I've known and admire very greatly who've had disabilities, and I've watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn't think of what it's doing -- the barriers that it puts up to them.
So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.
COBURN: Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I think I'll yield back the balance of my time at this time, and if I have additional questions, get them in the next round.
SPECTER: Thank you very much, Senator Coburn.
Anyone who is objecting now to Sotomayor's alleged "empathy" problem but who supported Sam Alito and never objected to this sort of thing ought to have their motives questioned (and the same is true for someone who claims that a person who overcame great odds to graduate at the top of their class at Princeton, graduate Yale Law School, and then spent time as a prosecutor, corporate lawyer, district court judge and appellate court judge must have been chosen due to "identity politics"). And the idea that her decision in Ricci demonstrates some sort of radicalism -- when she was simply affirming the decision of a federal district judge, was part of a unanimous circuit panel in doing so, was supported by a majority of her fellow Circuit judges who refused to re-hear the case, and will, by all accounts, have at least several current Supreme Court Justices side with her -- is frivolous on its face.
I have no doubt there are legitimate grounds for objecting to some of Sotomayor's judicial opinions. Doing that, as well as vigorously questioning her on important areas where she has little record (such as executive disputes), is not only legitimate, but vital. But the attacks thus far -- not just from the Right but from the sterling Respectable Intellectual Center -- say far, far more about the critics than they do about her. How can her "empathy" views possibly be distinguished from what Sam Alito -- at Tom Coburn's urging -- said when he was confirmed?
UPDATE: The focus on the three instances in which Sotomayor's rulings were reversed is equally inane. Reversals of that sort are a standard part of how the appellate justice system works and hardly means that a judge's abilities should be called into question. Any judge who sits on the bench long enough will make erroneous rulings at times. Many times, the Supreme Court makes new law when reversing and other times it is the Supreme Court's majority that errs.
But leave all that to the side: again, look at how Alito's reversals were treated, even though there were more of them and weightier questions:
* In a well-known 1991 case, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, Alito wrote a sole dissent supporting a state requirement that women inform their husbands before being permitted to obtain an abortion; the Supreme Court later rejected his view.
* In 2000, Alito ruled that Congress could not penalize state governments for failing to comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act; in 2003, the Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote (including Chief Judge Rehnquist) rejected that conclusion and ruled that states could be penalized.
* In a 2004 death penalty case Alito decided -- Rompilla v. Horn --Alito rejected the defendant's argument that his attorneys had failed to do perform an adequate investigation to prepare for his sentencing hearing. The Supreme Court reversed Alito's decision, ruling that the defense attorney's failure to even review evidence they knew the prosecution was going to introduce at sentencing violated the Sixth Amendment.
There are numerous other instances where Alito's rulings were repudiated either by the Supreme Court or even his own Circuit. Judge for yourself if those were treated the same way as Sotomayor's more limited and less meaningful instances of reversals. Was the argument made that this proved he was inept, intellectually deficient, and chosen soley for "identity politics" in order to attract the key Italian and Catholic voting blocs?
-Arriangrog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!
The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.
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I predict that they will fight it hard. Threaten, if not, use a filibuster to block the nomination.
The Grand Obstructionist Party has a reputation to live up to. Plus, if anyone complains, they can just cry that the dems did it with Bush's crazy nominees.
From where I sit, Republicans should quickly allow the nomination of the new emergencies, and filibuster absolutely everyone who fills any one of the 16. It's about damn time the Dems got a taste of their own medicine.
Although it was brilliant of Obama to put someone well qualified and hispanic ensuring that the Republicans will further destroy themselves over this. I don't buy his reaching across partisan boundaries. It's a trap!!!
I thought you supported a colourblind society, and I see you are fine with it so long as it doesn't include white people.Scouse Git (2) La Fayette Adam Smith Solomwi and Loinburger will not be forgotten.
"Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for..."
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Originally posted by SpencerH View PostI'd Pick Roberts, Scalia, and Alito as the most qualified (defined as a varied career encompassing private and/or public litigation, strong academic credentials, and time on a circuit court).“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
- John 13:34-35 (NRSV)
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Are there any rules about Supreme Court vacancies? Can they exist for extended periods?"The DPRK is still in a state of war with the U.S. It's called a black out." - Che explaining why orbital nightime pictures of NK show few lights. Seriously.
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I was more curious if the Supreme Court had to have all its members in order to pass judgement."The DPRK is still in a state of war with the U.S. It's called a black out." - Che explaining why orbital nightime pictures of NK show few lights. Seriously.
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Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui View PostI think Ginsberg and Stevens were fairly qualified as well (I know Ginsberg was a law professor).
What's really amusing me in this thread, though, is that many of the same folks (though not you, Imran) decrying Sotomayor's qualifications for the high court are the same hacks who, 8 months ago, were defending Palin's qualifications as a potential president."I have as much authority as the pope. I just don't have as many people who believe it." — George Carlin
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I'd love to see the formula used to determine "most qualified for SCOTUS."
Oh, what's that you say? There isn't one? Wow. Considering how many people are loudly asserting that certain nominees are not/were not the "most qualified" I'd have thought there was a test. You know: "so-and-so got a 92, but they picked such-and-such, who only got an 85! Goddamned idenitity politics!"
-Arriangrog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!
The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.
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I take it you are denying that she was picked because she was a women and hispanic then?"The DPRK is still in a state of war with the U.S. It's called a black out." - Che explaining why orbital nightime pictures of NK show few lights. Seriously.
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I'm not denying that her gender & ethnicity were factored into it, no.
He found a hispanic female judge who is well-qualified for the position. The court recently lost one of its 2 women, so picking another woman seems perfectly defensible to me - so long as she's qualified. She will apparently be the first hispanic justice. Again, so long as she's qualified, I don't see the problem.
Is there a left-of-center judge you would have preferred, Patroklos?
-Arriangrog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!
The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.
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