Thursday
May282009
Sotomayor's Classmates Say She Is Perfect For The Job
Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 9:36AM
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.
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.
Latinos: The Sleeping Giant?
The U.S is not responding to the needs of its Hispanic citizens even though the population of Hispanics college students in the US rises and many industries are gearing their marketing toward this changing demographic, according to former director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros.
Cisneros, now Executive Director at CityView and author of “Latinos and the Nation’s Future”, gave a speech on” Latinos and the Nation’s Future” today at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
“A very interesting phenomenon will be the growth of the second generation of Hispanic immigrants. The Pew Foundation says that this number, which is 11 million second generation Hispanics today, will be 30 million in 2030, so it will triple in 20 years or so,” said Cisneros.
Recently, the nomination of Hispanic judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has brought many criticisms from Republicans, who argue that she is not being sufficiently patriotic because she pronounces her name with a Spanish accent.The criticism of Sotomayor has renewed the debate on immigration integration.
Tamar Jacoby, President and CEO of ImmigrationWorks USA and co-author of “Latinos and the Nation’s Future”, said “For a long time, people have said that Latinos in American politics were the sleeping giant of American politics... The reason they thought that is because they said ‘look at these people, look at these demographics’... The political participation was below the potential.”
But Jacoby rejoiced of this complete turn for the best which began with the most recent presidential election of Barack Obama, saying that “In November 2004, 7.5 million Latinos voted; In 2008, 11 million Latinos voted.”
As a consequence of this Hispanic political awakening, Cisneros says that “We will see that the make up of community schools and colleges will be decidedly different in the time period we are describing... We will see that in markets as consumer products relate to the reality of these markets.”
Cisneros added that “Many industries view the growth of Latinos and immigration as the principal basis by which they will grow.”
“The sleeping giant woke up,” said Jacoby.