Sotomayor: Justice Denied

Alright, let’s see a show of hands, how many of you think that Sonia Sotomayor got nominated for the big job because she is, hands down without a doubt, the best qualified judge in America. Exactly! If our friends on the left are honest we can all agree that there are three reasons she got the nod: she is liberal, she is Hispanic, and she is a woman.

Is there any clear thinking conservative out there who thought that President Obama might actually try to fill this job opening that has the best benefits package in history with someone who might be, in some small way, acceptable to the right? This is the one appointment that cannot have any concession to conservatives. You can dislike Judge Sotomayor for her racial comments, that’s fair. You can look at her troubling record and the number of times she has been overturned on appeal and question her legal acumen. However, no intellectually honest conservative or liberal can deny that judges make policy and law in this country. Starting with the guy who takes your donations to local government for speeding right up to the First Street Nine, judges have the final word. In the game we like to call America, judges have all the marbles. Justice may be blind but she has a big mouth and when she speaks you must listen.

Conservatives who are realists know that unless there is a sex tape about to turn up on YouTube or a Mafia Don trying to make a plea bargain about to go before the grand jury, Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed. Let’s have our fun slinging a little mud at the hypocrisy of the left but try not to lose any sleep over this. It amazes me that all my right-wing friends are so shocked that President Obama should nominate a judicial activist to the Supreme Court. Modern liberalism believes that what is unavailable through the voting booth can be gotten from the bench. One need only look at the state and federal courts in the most liberal of states, California, to know this is true.

It further amazes me that we on the right are surprised that the President’s nominee would believe a member of a minority group can better judge cases than a white man. This is exactly what Judge Sotomayor has been taught at Princeton and at Yale. She may have been taught this at the Catholic High School she attended as well if the Jesuits were teaching there.

Finally, is it possible that we might stop talking about what a “compelling story” Judge Sotomayor’s life has been as if that is a qualification for the Supreme Court? There are millions of stories just like hers in this country. That is why people risk their lives and their liberty to come here both legally and illegally. As much as the left likes to demean this country as an unfair and racist place they are quick to point out that it is still possible to go from the projects to the penthouse in a single generation.

My father went from a very poor neighborhood in Pittsburgh to being an executive at a Fortune 500 company but that does not qualify him for the Court. Even though he was a Goldwater Republican, President Obama might have liked my dad, at our house he was an activist judge who made policy and law and was never overturned on appeal.