Entries for May 2009

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

One of the sillier attacks on Sonia Sotomayor is that some large proportion of her decisions has been overturned by the Supreme Court. She has, some conservatives breathlessly report, been overturned by the court 60 percent of the time. That seems pretty high, right?

Not so much.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Jack Farrell may argue that Sonia Sotomayor is Sam Alito on the left ("a studious Catholic baby boomer who enlisted in the meritocracy, graduated from prestigious Ivy League schools [Princeton, Yale Law], and served as a federal judge, showing considerable competence, and zero signs of legal artistry or intellectual genius")—and he may be right—but she beats him in at least one regard: initial polling numbers. According to Gallup, 47 percent of Americans rate Sotomayor as an excellent or good choice, while only 33 percent regard her as "only fair" or "poor." (A separate Rasmussen Poll puts the figure at 49-36, with 45 percent favoring her confirmation, 25 percent opposing and 26 percent unsure.) Her net 14 point positive balance in Gallup is only exceeded among this decade's Supreme Court nominees, according to Gallup, by John Roberts (51-34). Alito (43-39) and the unforgettable Harriet Miers (44-41) each received much more mixed initial reactions.

What does this tell us about how Sotomayor would be as a Supreme Court justice? Nothing at all. But it does indicate that the Obama White House handled her roll-out pretty well.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

One other item worth noting from the new Gallup poll on Americans' views regarding gays: A huge majority of Americans—69 percent—now support gays being able to serve in the U.S. military.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Yesterday's (correct but frustrating) California Supreme Court decision upholding the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 was such a blow in part because so much progress has been made on marriage equality in recent weeks elsewhere in the country (Maine, Iowa, even New Hampshire, though that progress has stalled). But supporters of gay marriage should not confuse progress with success, a fact reinforced by a new Gallup poll released this morning.

According to the poll, a strong majority of Americans (57 percent) continue to oppose gay marriage (with 40 percent favoring it). The good news is that in digging deeper one can find some reasons for optimism.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

It's been widely reported that Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, though a few people (including some TV commentators) have wondered whether Justice Benjamin Cardozo (on the court from 1932-1938) should not in fact be counted as such.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

One issue in Judge Sonia Sotomayor's candidacy for the high court that I'll follow with special interest is what if anything she says about executive power. It may not have the political sex appeal of abortion and gay marriage, but it's important. The imperial presidency ran out of control in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, with Bush administration officials more or less claiming that in the name of national security the president could do whatever he damn well pleased. My old colleague Charlie Savage wrote an important article in Sunday's New York Times laying out the question in the context of the short list, which of course included Sotomayor.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

David Frum has a post about the Sotomayor nomination that makes a point both amusing and a bit horrifying. Frum writes that there is good news for conservatives in that the SCOTUS scuttlebutt has been that Anthony Kennedy has been a left-leaning swing vote in recent years in negative reaction to the brilliant but mean Antonin Scalia.

Having lost in 2008, Republicans had no hope of a conservative or even a moderate judicial nominee. What we should therefore be hoping for, my friend continues, is the most personally obnoxious liberal, someone certain to offend and irritate Kennedy—and push him careening back rightward.

So, Frum writes, assuming that the reports are true that she is something of a dislikable bully, she is the perfect choice so far as conservatives are concerned. It's an amusing take ... but there's something genuinely disquieting about the notion that high court decisions are being made on the basis of grade schools clique-ism (I don't like Tony, so I'm going to vote against him; wow, I like Sonia even less, so maybe I'll swing back to the right.)