Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Opinion

The Incredible Disappearing Opposition to Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court Nomination

June 23, 2009 02:29 PM ET | Bonnie Erbe | Permanent Link | Print

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

So the GOP is finally awakening to the fact that Judge Sonia Sotomayor is not as left wing as opponents might have hoped she would be. And that means she's not a particularly meaty target of attack during her upcoming confirmation hearings. Do I hear a sonorous "duh!" emanating from the audience?

Politico reported this week:

"She doesn't have the punch out there in terms of fundraising and recruiting, I think—at least so far," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who most likely will be elected as the No. 4 Republican in Senate leadership this week. .... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the opposition to Sotomayor doesn't have the same intensity he felt in 2005, when the GOP threatened the minority's right to filibuster judicial nominees.

I blogged right after President Obama announced her selection as his first Supreme Court nominee that her record was quite pro-business and that she had no record as a great defender of a woman's so-called right to choose. The Associated Press backs me up here on her record on corporate cases:

...Sotomayor has supported limiting damages in lawsuits against companies and will dismiss discrimination claims if she finds they aren't supported by the law. [Evan] Tager [a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown, who has reviewed her decisions as a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals] said some of the positions she's taken in damage awards cases, in particular, should hearten the business community.

Sotomayor dissented in a 2000 case when the appeals court ruled that the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island occurred within U.S. territorial waters. That ruling allowed victims' families to sue TWA, Boeing Co. and a parts manufacturer for damages that would have been barred if the crash had happened in international seas.

It's never been definitely proven where Judge Sotomayor stands on choice, but I reported earlier that she's convinced the head of one large women's rights group that she is pro-choice. Still, we won't know until she starts handing down rulings on the right to privacy. And the way most Senate confirmation hearings go, she will most likely be given plenty of room to dodge questions about exactly where she stands.

Republicans should be thanking the heavens for Obama's selection. But as Senator Thune notes above, she hasn't helped the GOP with fundraising efforts. I guess she's never been told that is part of her job.

Tags: Sonia Sotomayor

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Reader Comments

Tip of the Iceberg

Thanks to the

footage recording her flippant asides to her colleagues ,we have proof that she comes with an agenda.

Bonnie mentions Roe "Right of privacy"

Roe v Wade is not totally about "privacy." To explain it better, imagine women with unwanted pregnancies, sitting in cars in all cities, ready to drive themselves to abortionists. If Roe is overturned, the civil government will return to enforcing Canon 2350, the Catholic law that says abortion is a crime. With Roe gone, the women won't be able to GO where they want to Go. They will have lost their MOBIILITY, They'll be like all Muslim women who must be driven around by male relatives, like luggage or pets in cages.

Sotomayor is still a bad choice

Democrats and leftist media like NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN have wax in their ears and will not report the truth.

But we can have the likes of ABC screwing the pooch tonight with their political contribution to the Democratic party for Obamacare, another faux paux crisis of great political proportion, but not fiscal.

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About Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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