National Review’s Ed Whelan on Judge Sotomayor
Ed Whelan is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and he has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. He is a regular contributor to National Review’s The Corner and Bench Memos blogs and he serves as President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
We discussed everything from the absurd (Democrats warning Republicans to be “exceedingly careful”) to the now-infamous “Wise Latina” comment to her ruling in the New Haven firefighter case.
Bottom line: Her judicial philosophy is troubling and she should be vigorously quesioned about it. That said, elctions have consequences, and someone like her on the court is one of them. In Democratic circles, she is a mainstream jurist and she should be confirmed, but not before what Krauthammer described as a “teachable moment” about the differneces between conservative and liberal judicial philosophy.
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June 1, 2009 8:59 am 
The “wise latina” remark was made in an informal setting and really cannot “speak” for her “judicial philosophy” because it didn’t have much if anything to do with being a judge. Meanwhile, Sotomayor has twenty years on the bench to speak for her - are the Republicans going to even notice that? Are they going to look through her long record and say anything about that?
Or is it so long since they have seen or vetted or nominated anybody with any sort of track record at all that they can’t even seem to notice or work with a very long and open track record of an opposition appointee?
Infoferret,
Thanks for regurgitating the White House talking points. You are wrong about the wise latina comment. It was in prepared remarks she gave and THEN she submitted those very comments for a law review article. As Ed Whelan asked last night, since when is a law review article informal?
As for her 20-year record, yes Republicans will notice and say something about it, that’s why we talked so much about the New Haven firefighter case.
As for this bit of incoherence,
“Or is it so long since they have seen or vetted or nominated anybody with any sort of track record at all that they can’t even seem to notice or work with a very long and open track record of an opposition appointee?”
Do the names John Roberts and Sam Alito ring a bell?
Get a clue.
Kevin