photocredit: Pete Souza, White House
As mentioned previously, the chance to send a judge to the Supreme Court is one of the surest ways a president can create a legacy. The pick also reflects the president’s attitude and, often but not always, their mentality. With Sonia Sotomayor, Obama is playing it smart.
His pick of what many Republicans considered the most liberal of the finalists he was considering (Napolitano, Kagan, and Wood being the other three) is bold and savvy. Even though she is likely to draw Republican fire because of her left-lean, her life experience, race, and sex make her the hardest pick to block. She represents another historic opportunity that many Republicans will think twice about going against.
Overall, she appears to be similar to Obama in his pragmatic, conciliatory approach to decision-making. She might be a perfect fit for the chair Souter is leaving behind.
There may be the usual hiccups during the vetting process, and the Obama administration is hopefully wiser by now (cough, Daschle, cough, Richardson). But according to some sources, Obama has learned from his mistakes and thoroughly examined his first major judicial decision.
Although the press reported that he had interviewed Wood, Sotomayor was at the White House for seven hours on Thursday without being discovered by reporters.
An Obama aide said the president, who interviewed her for an hour in the Oval Office, “was blown away by her — her personal story, her sharp intellect and confidence, and her experience as prosecutor, trial judge, litigator and appellate judge.”
There was a “full vet,” according to a senior administration official, and both her taxes and health were examined.
Sotomayor has diabetes, and White House aides consulted both her doctor and other doctors to ensure that she was fit to serve.
“I don’t think there’s any stone that’s been left unturned,” said a senior administration official.
This is a particularly hard pick to block. Anyone going against Sotomayor cannot claim she lacks judicial experience necessary for the highest court in the land (she doesn’t), nor that she is too radical a pick (her record doesn’t show that), nor that she is unfit to serve in such an important role (her diabetes might come up, but I doubt it). Any mention of “unfit” might easily be perceived as a euphemism for a much more racist or sexist argument. All in all, she should ride the confirmation process unscathed.
Sotomayor’s pick is also politically cunning. The growing Latino base, which last election switched allegiance back to the Democrats, is sure to be pleased with such a historic nod to progress. This also undercuts the GOP’s (patronizing) attempts at wooing those votes. Again, any attack lobbied against Sotomayor can easily be considered a disrespectful argument against the Latino community as a whole.
But her greatest asset might be her life experience. Coming to an institution that looks upon society from an Ivory Tower, Sotomayor’s story is refreshing and welcome. A Puerto Rican raised in the Bronx by her mother, spent her life in public housing, graduated from Princeton (summa cum lade) and Yale Law, and appointed to the ranks of federal appeal courts judge in NY by two presidents from different parties, make her an invigorating addition to the SC bubble.
But who am I to babble on. Let a Clinton-era deputy Attorney General sum up the game being played:
We now understand President Obama’s description of the kind of person he wanted to put on the Supreme Court: superb credentials, bipartisan credibility, broad experience in the law and in life. Sonia Sotomayor, the Princeton summa cum laude graduate who was Phi Beta Kappa and an editor of the Yale Law Journal, has the intellectual firepower to tackle the hardest issues and to argue with — and persuade — others on the court. This talent was recognized by two presidents of different parties who nominated her to the district court and the court of appeals. But it is her breadth of background that is distinct. Her childhood — fatherless at a young age, fighting illness, overcoming odds to rise to valedictorian of one of the toughest schools in New York — continues to inform her worldview.
She chose first to become a prosecutor, to keep poor communities safe, and that tough-on-crime perspective is found in her opinions. She has been a leader and a model in the Latino community; that empathy for those striving to make their way is seen in her work as a judge. Sotomayor is going to show us what the president meant when he said he wanted both brilliance and humanity.
Any possible speedbump in her confirmation process?
[...] SCOTUS pick reflects Obama’s politics [...]