The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan begin today. I have one prediction regarding the hearings: they will be very bland.
Kagan has a thin trail of scholarship, and her work for the Clinton administration apparently did not include much written analysis. Accordingly, it is difficult to determine her political views. This will make it difficult for Republicans to brand her as a "judicial activist," although undoubtedly they will try.
I doubt that any Democrats will seriously challenge Kagan in any substantive way, and if she faces tough questions from either side, she will probably give answers that reveal very little about her ideology. So, if you are making popcorn for the hearings, add lots of butter and prepare a strong drink.
Showing posts with label confirmation hearings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confirmation hearings. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, July 17, 2009
Send in the Clowns: The GOP, the Sotomayor Hearings, and Political Suicide
Last year, I decided that Maureen Dowd had lost her verve. After a litany of weekly essays knifing Hillary Clinton and worshipping Barack Obama, she appeared robotic and unoriginal. But, Dowd's latest essay shows some of her old sparkle. In classic Dowd style, Dowd goes after the Republican Senators who have questioned Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's impartiality, temperament, and honesty. Dowd praises Sotomayor for maintaining her cool in the face of hostility, concluding that: "A wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not know that a gaggle of white Republican men afraid of extinction are out to trip her up." Regrettably, I agree.
Prior to the Sotomayor nomination, I published many essays on this blog that defend Republicans from liberal attacks. For example, I defended Michael Steele (here, here, here, and here), Sarah Palin (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), Rush Limbaugh (here and here), and John McCain (here, here, here, and here) from unfair criticism. I also criticized "the liberal media," liberals and Democrats, including President Obama, when other progressives refused to do so (too many links to list). Although I continue to criticize liberals, my search for material to defend the GOP has been largely unsuccessful since the Sotomayor nomination.
The GOP's False and Offensive Anti-Sotomayor Narrative
Despite her excellent academic and professional credentials, many Republicans have decided that she is an intellectual lightweight, a partial judge, a bigot, and an ideologue. Given her nearly 20 years of judging, if these allegations were true, then the hundreds of opinions she has written would back up the claims. Nothing in Sotomayor's record as a judge, however, legitimates the Republicans' allegations.
Lacking any credible proof that Sotomayor is unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court, Republicans have resorted to distortion. They have extracted one case (Ricci) from her long legal career, and despite the fact that several other judges reached the same conclusion as Sotomayor, Republicans have pointed to her position in the case to argue that she is biased against white men.
Republicans have also extracted one sentence from one speech that Sotomayor delivered, distorted its meaning, and have attempted to define Sotomayor with their own misrepresentation of her words. Clearly operating under White House directions, Sotomayor has (wisely) said that she should have chosen other words to convey her message. She even apologized for any pain her words caused (but conservatives oppose "victimology"). Nevertheless, the spewing continues.
Embracing Principles or Committing Political Suicide?
Sotomayor will sit on the Supreme Court. All of the Democrats and even some of the Republicans will vote to confirm her. Meanwhile, the Republican Party will likely take a political hit from the hearings -- especially among blacks and Latinos, whose support for the GOP is already in the toilet.
Ironically, Republican Senators like Jeff Sessions are leading the attacks against Sotomayor. President Reagan nominated Sessions for a federal district court judgeship, but his nomination never made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Many committee members were not amused by some of Sessions's prior comments on race, which appear to praise the Ku Klux Klan and which describe the NAACP and ACLU as "un-American." Send in the clowns.
One could argue that the GOP is valiantly embracing its principles in the face of wide opposition and deep political risks. But that argument requires a showing that principles are actually dictating the behavior of Republicans. On that point, the record is weak. Portraying a highly successful woman of color with a long and distinguished judicial record as a dumb shrill racist partisan is not only factually inaccurate, but it amounts to political suicide for a party that needs to capture the attention of women, moderates, and persons of color. Rather than adhering to principles, it seems that the GOP is on a suicide mission. For those of us who favor a multi-party system, this is bad news.
Prior to the Sotomayor nomination, I published many essays on this blog that defend Republicans from liberal attacks. For example, I defended Michael Steele (here, here, here, and here), Sarah Palin (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), Rush Limbaugh (here and here), and John McCain (here, here, here, and here) from unfair criticism. I also criticized "the liberal media," liberals and Democrats, including President Obama, when other progressives refused to do so (too many links to list). Although I continue to criticize liberals, my search for material to defend the GOP has been largely unsuccessful since the Sotomayor nomination.
The GOP's False and Offensive Anti-Sotomayor Narrative
Despite her excellent academic and professional credentials, many Republicans have decided that she is an intellectual lightweight, a partial judge, a bigot, and an ideologue. Given her nearly 20 years of judging, if these allegations were true, then the hundreds of opinions she has written would back up the claims. Nothing in Sotomayor's record as a judge, however, legitimates the Republicans' allegations.
Lacking any credible proof that Sotomayor is unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court, Republicans have resorted to distortion. They have extracted one case (Ricci) from her long legal career, and despite the fact that several other judges reached the same conclusion as Sotomayor, Republicans have pointed to her position in the case to argue that she is biased against white men.
Republicans have also extracted one sentence from one speech that Sotomayor delivered, distorted its meaning, and have attempted to define Sotomayor with their own misrepresentation of her words. Clearly operating under White House directions, Sotomayor has (wisely) said that she should have chosen other words to convey her message. She even apologized for any pain her words caused (but conservatives oppose "victimology"). Nevertheless, the spewing continues.
Embracing Principles or Committing Political Suicide?
Sotomayor will sit on the Supreme Court. All of the Democrats and even some of the Republicans will vote to confirm her. Meanwhile, the Republican Party will likely take a political hit from the hearings -- especially among blacks and Latinos, whose support for the GOP is already in the toilet.
Ironically, Republican Senators like Jeff Sessions are leading the attacks against Sotomayor. President Reagan nominated Sessions for a federal district court judgeship, but his nomination never made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Many committee members were not amused by some of Sessions's prior comments on race, which appear to praise the Ku Klux Klan and which describe the NAACP and ACLU as "un-American." Send in the clowns.
One could argue that the GOP is valiantly embracing its principles in the face of wide opposition and deep political risks. But that argument requires a showing that principles are actually dictating the behavior of Republicans. On that point, the record is weak. Portraying a highly successful woman of color with a long and distinguished judicial record as a dumb shrill racist partisan is not only factually inaccurate, but it amounts to political suicide for a party that needs to capture the attention of women, moderates, and persons of color. Rather than adhering to principles, it seems that the GOP is on a suicide mission. For those of us who favor a multi-party system, this is bad news.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
LA Times Complains That Senate Judiciary Committee Members Are Talking Too Much
LA Times writer Andrew Malcolm reports that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are "out-talking" Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor by a 2-1 ratio. Malcolm relies upon a computer generated word count of hearing transcripts.
In fairness to the Senators, however, the Senate Judiciary Committee has 19 members -- a fact that Malcolm conveniently neglects to report. Nevertheless, because the committee members are trying to communicate messages to voters (desired or otherwise), they have decided to do what comes naturally: grandstand. Accordingly, I am not surprised that the committee members are out-talking Sotomayor, a no-nonsense judge. Besides, some of the questions are so asinine (multiple versions of "do you hate guns or white men"), that Sotomayor's answers are probably too long, if anything.
In fairness to the Senators, however, the Senate Judiciary Committee has 19 members -- a fact that Malcolm conveniently neglects to report. Nevertheless, because the committee members are trying to communicate messages to voters (desired or otherwise), they have decided to do what comes naturally: grandstand. Accordingly, I am not surprised that the committee members are out-talking Sotomayor, a no-nonsense judge. Besides, some of the questions are so asinine (multiple versions of "do you hate guns or white men"), that Sotomayor's answers are probably too long, if anything.
Joe the Firefighter to Testify at Today's Sotomayor Hearings
Senate Republicans have rebuked "empathy" among judges as if they were Southern ministers commanding Satan to flee. Today, however, they will contradict their anti-empathy stance by bringing Frank Ricci to testify against Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
Ricci Litigation
Ricci filed a lawsuit challenging a 2004 decision by the City of New Haven to scrap the results of a test it used to allocate promotions in the fire department. If the city had certified the test results, virtually all of the promotions would have gone to whites. The city decided to discard the test and to develop other promotions criteria. Expert witnesses testified that other methods exist that could identify employees worthy of promotions in a less discriminatory fashion. The city said that it feared litigation under federal law that considers disparate effects relevant to an antidiscrimination claim and that it wanted to diversify the pool of employees receiving promotions.
The District Court ruled against Ricci in 2006, and a 3-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him in 2008. Sotomayor was a judge on the panel. The full Second Circuit subsequently voted to deny reargument in the case. The Supreme Court recently reversed the lower court rulings.
Although the issues in this case are important, the opinions do not dramatically alter the legal terrain. Nevertheless, the case and its lead plaintiff -- Ricci -- gained notoriety after President Obama nominated Sotomayor to replace the retiring Justice David Souter. Despite the fact that many judges -- including four justices on the Supreme Court -- have disagreed with Ricci, conservatives who oppose Sotomayor have used this case in an effort to define her as a racial extremist. Today, they will continue advancing this inaccurate script by bringing Ricci to testify.
Ricci's Testimony Is a Colossal Waste of Time
Ricci's testimony will not add anything to the public's knowledge of Sotomayor's qualifications as a judge. Sotomayor has served as a judge for nearly 20 years, and she has decided numerous cases. Only an examination of her complete record as a judge -- rather than one case scrutinized in isolation -- can allow for a balanced and honest assessment of her qualifications.
Although conservatives are attempting to use Ricci (the case and the man) in order to portray Sotomayor as a white-hating race radical, the SCOTUS blog's review of all of the race cases she has decided shows that this label is absolutely false. Sotomayor has rarely dissented in race discrimination cases, and in the bulk of those cases, she has voted against the plaintiffs (constrained, no doubt, by "bad" cases and conservative precedent). In one of her few dissents, however, she actually voted for a white racist employee who was fired from the New York Police Department after he distributed racist literature. Sotomayor, disagreeing with the other two judges, argued that the dismissal violated the employee's First Amendment rights. For obvious reasons, conservatives have treated this case as if it did not exist.
Ricci's testimony will not provide any useful information for many other reasons. First, as a non-lawyer, his competence to evaluate Sotomayor as a jurist is dubious. Second, because Ricci is a disgruntled litigant, many reasonable people will dismiss his analysis as biased. Finally, Ricci only represents one piece of the puzzle. The City of New Haven, the fire department, the workers of color, and potentially the other judges involved in these decisions could all help shape public perception of the case. But (thankfully) these individuals are not testifying. One side of a story is not the story.
Ricci and Empathy
Because Ricci's testimony will not contribute to the public's understanding of Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the Supreme Court, Republicans are undoubtedly using him for political purposes. Republicans are exploiting Ricci to turn Sotomayor's hearings into a mini-referendum on affirmative action and race. Ricci, like Joe the Plumber, represents the "beleaguered white male," held down by evil liberal policies. Republicans hope that Ricci will create "empathy" for conservative opposition to affirmative action and embolden its political base (which increasingly consists only of Frank Riccis). Apparently, Ricci, like Joe the Plumber, savors 5-minutes of political fame. Where exactly is that plumber dude today?
PS: Democrats are trotting out a lawyer who litigated a case before Sotomayor. The lawyer represented the prevailing party. Although a lawyer could potentially bring more to the confirmation hearings than a firefighter, this testimony will probably add very little if anything to the discussion of Sotomayor's record.
For links to all of the Sotomayor articles on Dissenting Justice, see: Sonia Sotomayor on Dissenting Justice
Ricci Litigation
Ricci filed a lawsuit challenging a 2004 decision by the City of New Haven to scrap the results of a test it used to allocate promotions in the fire department. If the city had certified the test results, virtually all of the promotions would have gone to whites. The city decided to discard the test and to develop other promotions criteria. Expert witnesses testified that other methods exist that could identify employees worthy of promotions in a less discriminatory fashion. The city said that it feared litigation under federal law that considers disparate effects relevant to an antidiscrimination claim and that it wanted to diversify the pool of employees receiving promotions.
The District Court ruled against Ricci in 2006, and a 3-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him in 2008. Sotomayor was a judge on the panel. The full Second Circuit subsequently voted to deny reargument in the case. The Supreme Court recently reversed the lower court rulings.
Although the issues in this case are important, the opinions do not dramatically alter the legal terrain. Nevertheless, the case and its lead plaintiff -- Ricci -- gained notoriety after President Obama nominated Sotomayor to replace the retiring Justice David Souter. Despite the fact that many judges -- including four justices on the Supreme Court -- have disagreed with Ricci, conservatives who oppose Sotomayor have used this case in an effort to define her as a racial extremist. Today, they will continue advancing this inaccurate script by bringing Ricci to testify.
Ricci's Testimony Is a Colossal Waste of Time
Ricci's testimony will not add anything to the public's knowledge of Sotomayor's qualifications as a judge. Sotomayor has served as a judge for nearly 20 years, and she has decided numerous cases. Only an examination of her complete record as a judge -- rather than one case scrutinized in isolation -- can allow for a balanced and honest assessment of her qualifications.
Although conservatives are attempting to use Ricci (the case and the man) in order to portray Sotomayor as a white-hating race radical, the SCOTUS blog's review of all of the race cases she has decided shows that this label is absolutely false. Sotomayor has rarely dissented in race discrimination cases, and in the bulk of those cases, she has voted against the plaintiffs (constrained, no doubt, by "bad" cases and conservative precedent). In one of her few dissents, however, she actually voted for a white racist employee who was fired from the New York Police Department after he distributed racist literature. Sotomayor, disagreeing with the other two judges, argued that the dismissal violated the employee's First Amendment rights. For obvious reasons, conservatives have treated this case as if it did not exist.
Ricci's testimony will not provide any useful information for many other reasons. First, as a non-lawyer, his competence to evaluate Sotomayor as a jurist is dubious. Second, because Ricci is a disgruntled litigant, many reasonable people will dismiss his analysis as biased. Finally, Ricci only represents one piece of the puzzle. The City of New Haven, the fire department, the workers of color, and potentially the other judges involved in these decisions could all help shape public perception of the case. But (thankfully) these individuals are not testifying. One side of a story is not the story.
Ricci and Empathy
Because Ricci's testimony will not contribute to the public's understanding of Sotomayor's fitness to serve on the Supreme Court, Republicans are undoubtedly using him for political purposes. Republicans are exploiting Ricci to turn Sotomayor's hearings into a mini-referendum on affirmative action and race. Ricci, like Joe the Plumber, represents the "beleaguered white male," held down by evil liberal policies. Republicans hope that Ricci will create "empathy" for conservative opposition to affirmative action and embolden its political base (which increasingly consists only of Frank Riccis). Apparently, Ricci, like Joe the Plumber, savors 5-minutes of political fame. Where exactly is that plumber dude today?
PS: Democrats are trotting out a lawyer who litigated a case before Sotomayor. The lawyer represented the prevailing party. Although a lawyer could potentially bring more to the confirmation hearings than a firefighter, this testimony will probably add very little if anything to the discussion of Sotomayor's record.
For links to all of the Sotomayor articles on Dissenting Justice, see: Sonia Sotomayor on Dissenting Justice
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