Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Yale University classmates and supporters of President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, say she is perfect for the job.

Currently a judge of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Sonia Sotomayor is President Obama’s choice to replace Justice Souter on the bench of the Supreme Court. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the third woman and the first hispanic to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

On a conference call with reporters yesterday,, Martha L. Minow, now a professor at Harvard Law School, said that the decisions Sotomayor has made as a judge on Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will positively influence her role as a judge of the United States Supreme Court.

Sotomayor “really shows,even in her role as an appelate judge, her knowledge as a litigator and then a district court judge about the importance of procedural rules and using the factual records. That is very notable because it shows a great deal of craft,” said Minow.

Sotomayor’s nomination is “a superb appointment because this is a lawyer’s lawyer. Someone who actually understands all the way down,how the craft of law works, and how working with facts and law required close reading of both,” Minow said.

As to Sotomayor’s judgement on free speech and cases dealing with the first amendment, “she takes each case as it comes and looks very much at the details of the facts,to decide on which way the constitutional analysis ought to go,” said Paul Smith, a lawyer who was another classmate of Sotomayor’s at Yale. He said that “she is focused on not just broad doctrine but how the doctrine applies to particular situations.”

“Judge Sotomayor is not a judge that goes out on a limb to impose her view of the law” but is “one that overturn decisions or practice anymore than necessary,” said Scott Moss,Professor at University of Colorado Law School.

Citing Ricci v. DeStefano, which is currently in the hands of the Supreme Court, Sotomayor moved in favor of the withdrawal of the debated test.The case involves the city of New Haven,Conn., and its decision to base future promotions in its firefighting force on a written test. The results were invalidated by the city after none of the African-American candidates and only two Hispanics qualified for the promotion. In their opinion for Ricci, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals,including Judge Sotomayor, “expressed real sympathy for the plaintliffs” but that the three judges “were bound with previous decisions made in the area” and that they will not change the lower court’s decision, said William P. Marshall, Professor at University f North Carolina School of Law.

Sotomayor’s role showed “her instincts for judicial restraints” said Marshall.

Responding to a question on Sotomayor’s decisions on the second amendment that protects a right to keep and bear arms, Minow said that she was “cautious,careful, deciding only what is needed to be decided” but that she has given views only on a limited number of cases.