printSHE’S IN. SotoSetAsides Mayor has been confirmed as a United States Supreme Court Justice. Let the deluge of original commentary vis-a-vis the history-making nature of the event commence. (For one of my older columns, read “Media’s Judicial Jiu-Jitsu For Da Big Man,” or search the blog archive for the many debates we’ve had about Sonia.
At LRC.COM, my good friend Tom DiLorenzo, comments about her worldview (sealed with Tom’s vintage humor):
“The newest black-robed deity talks the language of pop-Marxism, the fundamental belief system of the man who appointed her. Sotomayor’s now-famous comment about how she possesses special and unique legal insights by virtue of being a “Latina woman” is an expression of what used to be called “Marxian class consciousness,” that is, one’s views are determined by the social class one belongs to. In the old days the relevant Marxian classes were the working and capitalist classes. After the worldwide collapse of socialism in the late ’80s/early ’90s, the pop Marxists of academe switched their tune to a different sort of class struggle: Now it’s the White Heterosexual Male Oppressor “class” versus all of the various mascot groups of the academic left, i.e., women, minorities, homosexuals, Latinos, the transgendered, etc., etc.
P.S. A friend who is married to a Latina woman makes good use of Sotomayor’s lingo whenever his wife asks him to perform various chores around the house: He tells her that as a Latina woman she has special skills in doing the chores, and should therefore do them herself.”
I’ve tried mightily to avoid the whole sordid SCOTUS nomination and hearings charade. It’s a lot like Kabuki theater, only more artificial.
Much like the executive, the court was never intended to assume the amount of power at its disposal. Nine sheltered, unelected individuals should not have the ability to issue edicts that profoundly affect us all. Worse, we have no recourse. To rub salt into the wound, we have our property stolen from us to pay for their cushy salaries and pensions. What a racket.
As for Justice Sotomayor, it’s abundantly clear that she is a woman of modest intellect and the beneficiary of a culture that prizes victimology over merit. That in itself is not a damning offense, but her insistence on imposing her twisted form of social justice on 300 million people should be an outrage to us all. Instead, we have about 295 million walking zombies who know nothing of her qualifications or her track record as a judge.
We’re doomed.
To echo Steve Hogan above, I’ve never understood why we Americans submit to judicial tyranny. Article III Section 1 says that judges “shall hold their offices during good behaviour.” Legislating from the bench is not good behavior. We should have seen many more impeachments than we have.
Article III Section 2 empowers Congress to limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Congress could have nullified such radical decisions as Wickard v. Filburn, Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Plyler v. Doe, Lawrence v. Texas, et al., and then forbade the courts (at least the Supreme Court) to reconsider the subject matter. Yet Congress remains supine.
In any case, the key sentence in the MSNBC story linked above is, “Sotomayor replaces retiring Justice David Souter, a liberal named by a Republican president, and she is not expected to alter the court’s ideological split.” As long as we swap liberal idiot for liberal idiot (pardon the redundancy), the Court won’t get much worse. Whether we get an extreme leftist Court depends on how long BHO and the Democrats remain in power. Their constituents’ childish demands for instant economic results might work against them. This generation of Americans might be too spoiled to make BHO a second FDR.
Excuse me, but I thought Sonia Sotomayor was of superior intellect because she is a “wise latina” woman who has “lived” the life. Now if I could get some of that wisdom for myself.
Wait a minute, I’m a white, northern European male with no discernible traits other then to get under the skin of those who are not like me.
I guess my place in “hell” will be hotter because, I haven’t “lived” the life of a protected class. Happily married to the same woman for 36 years, 3 children, oldest (son) with cerebral palsy. And two beautiful daughters who are not married and are still chaste. No I haven’t “had” the experience of others. I’m just a creepy white male doing his “thing.”
Of course we expect the Democrats to vote lock-step with the boss. Also of course the Republicans didn’t have the votes to stop this travesty, or any other travesty favored by the socialist minions of Obama. However, this would be a chance for Republicans to stand up and start acting like men who want to fight this leftist disaster that has befallen the country, especially since the they are largely to blame.
There was no good reason for voting for this woman. Therefore those Republicans who did show themselves for the “go along to get along” weaklings they are.
I agree with James Huggins about the republicans caving in to Sotomayor. Absolutely gutless display. Most in view to me and most troubling was the South Carolina senator.. Lindsay Graham. He came off like he was really going after her and even exposed things that were really wrong, and then like a classic worm, he votes for this horrible excuse for a Supreme court justice. I didn’t hear every senators comments, but the only one to me that had the right stuff was Senator Grassley of Iowa. Martin Berrow
Well, I just had a rather sad 5 days going to the funeral and mourning (Shiva) for the unexpected death of a 27 year old daughter of good friends who had just been admitted to Sonia’s New York bar two weeks earlier. On the way, I got to give a hearty Bronx pfffft cheer to Sonia’s housing project off the Bruckner Expressway and to her beloved pffft Yankee stadium. But being away from the idiotic statist news was the one positive aspect of a tragic several days.
Nevertheless, the 9 clowns generally approve the mishigash (stupidity) of Congress, the President, and the American public. And if the clowns act against Congress, as Gringo Malo points out, Congress can often pass legislation to
limit or clarify the Supremes – but usually goes along. Culpability for our Warfare-Welfare state runs very deep – standing up for liberty against the mob has not been attempted by the Court since 1937. “We have met the enemy and it is us” – Walt “Pogo” Kelly.
[How sad; what force took a person so young and full of promise?]