Recently in Supreme Court Category
Jul 15 2009, 2:44PM
Scalia, Sotmayor And The Protestant Rebellion That Wasn't
A few commentators haven noted that if Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed, she'll be the sixth Catholic to sit on the court. There will be two Jews and one Protestant. That this is a total non-issue says so much about the country, how it's changed and our notions of diversity. Anti-Catholicism was a mainstay of American life for so long. One need only recall the 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy and his assurances that he wouldn't take orders from the Pope and contrast it with that of John F. Kerry who, in 2004, had to address windsurfing more than his religion. So it's remarkable that today this is not an issue. No Protestant group lobbied for another WASP on the court. It just worked out that six Catholics wound up on the bench, not by design but by the organic choices of multiple presidents.
Jul 15 2009, 1:40PM
Cornyn On Sotomayor Hearings & Hispanic Votes: I'm Just Doing My Job
John Cornyn (R-TX) is one of the more interesting senators to watch during Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings. As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who represents a state with a large Hispanic population, he's at the nexus of Republican political concerns over the Sotomayor proceedings. The party wants to compete for Hispanic votes, opposing the first Hispanic nominee may hurt them; at the same time, conservative groups want to make Sotomayor a rallying cry for the party's core conservative base. Cornyn has to win the votes, raise the money, and turn out the conservatives if he wants to win Senate campaigns in 2010.
He hasn't been as tough on Sotomayor as some of his Republican colleagues. Unlike Lindsey Graham (R-SC) yesterday, who repeatedly cut Sotomayor off and made insinuations about her judicial philosophy, Cornyn actually apologized for beginning to interrupt her today. He restricted his questions to "do you stand by your words?" and "can you explain what you meant?"--even if his questions covered the same material as his fellow partisans: the "wise Latina" quote, the New Haven firefighters case, whether judges change the law, abortion, etc.
He hasn't been as tough on Sotomayor as some of his Republican colleagues. Unlike Lindsey Graham (R-SC) yesterday, who repeatedly cut Sotomayor off and made insinuations about her judicial philosophy, Cornyn actually apologized for beginning to interrupt her today. He restricted his questions to "do you stand by your words?" and "can you explain what you meant?"--even if his questions covered the same material as his fellow partisans: the "wise Latina" quote, the New Haven firefighters case, whether judges change the law, abortion, etc.
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