Sotomayor Hearing—Cornyn's Round 1 [Ed Whelan]
Senator Cornyn asked Judge Sotomayor about her "wise Latina" speech and her equally bizarre 1996 speech on "Returning Majesty to the Law and Politics." Sotomayor continued her pattern of offering implausible, if not deceptive, readings of her own words. She also didn't repudiate her notion (in the "wise Latina" speech) that inherent physiological differences among racial and ethnic groups, and between men and women, may affect how judges decide cases.
Cornyn then tried to explore how the White House and other Sotomayor backers were able to give assurances about Sotomayor's views on abortion.
Finally, Cornyn turned to the New Haven firefighters case and the dismissive treatment of the claims by Sotomayor and her panel colleagues. (One minor note: In support of her contention that she couldn't have succeeded in burying the plantiffs' claims, Sotomayor mistakenly contended that the plaintiffs filed a petition for rehearing en banc. In fact, as Stuart Taylor has explained, the en banc proceedings were evidently initiated by Judge Cabranes.)
More on Cornyn's Questioning [Roger Clegg]
Senator Cornyn asks about her panel's attempt to bury the Ricci case. She says, in effect, that whatever her panel did, the firefighters could always file a request for rehearing en banc that would be circulated to all the judges (I suppose that's true, but it certainly makes it more difficult and less likely to the case would get the attention it obviously deserved and finally got, despite her efforts). She says that a summary order was appropriate because summary orders are what are used in 75 percent of appellate cases (a complete non sequitur, given the fact that the legal issues in Ricci were obviously not as routine and unimportant as 75 percent of the cases in her circuit). Finally, as she has repeatedly during these hearings, she implies that the Supreme Court changed the law in its opinion, which is not true: The Supreme Court's opinion is no departure at all from its past precedent or with what the statute requires.
More on Cornyn’s Questioning - Roger Clegg - Bench Memos on National Review Online (15 July 2009)
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