¡Olé! Sotomayor Hearings Have Advanced Conservatism
Morgen on July 17, 2009
Yesterday was the final day of testimony for Judge Sotomayor’s Senate Confirmation Hearing. While it will likely be another 2-3 weeks before her confirmation is brought up for a final vote in the full Senate, her confirmation is pretty much assured. Senator Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, announced Thursday morning that there would be no GOP attempt at a filibuster. Which would have zero chance at success anyway, but I think it is also the right thing to do on principle. And although the Republicans on the committee asked some very tough questions over the past few days, I think they handled the hearing in a very fair and professional manner. Which is more than can be said for many current Democrat Senators when Miguel Estrada was before the Committee.
Overall, I think conservatives have a lot to be happy about coming out of the hearing. Because based on Sotomayor’s testimony alone, we’re about to add another conservative, strict constructionist to the Supreme Court!
Of course we know that this isn’t really the case. But the fact that Sotomayor went out of her way to declare her absolute fidelity to the Law, and deference to Congress as the only legitimate law-making body under the Constitution, says something very important. It says that she needed to at least sound like a conservative in order to be confirmed. It says that fundamentally we are right, and that the majority of the public agrees with us, which from a political standpoint is even more important.
And in the process of sounding like John Roberts, Sotomayor directly refuted the President’s standard of empathy as a necessary or desired trait in judging. Of course it’s gratifying that she made the President look somewhat foolish over this. But more significantly, it will be that much harder for any future nominees to rely on “empathy” as justification for a progressive interpretation of the law. And I’d bet that we won’t hear the President speaking about this again either.
Lastly, while I think most everyone would agree that the chance of this is very remote, Sotomayor could actually prove to be more conservative than her liberal backers have assumed. And wouldn’t that be fitting since David Souter, who she is replacing, was appointed by the first President Bush and ended up being a major disappointment for conservatives. (And guess what: some liberals are very nervous about this.)
So all in all I think conservatives should be very pleased. And the Republicans on the Committee deserve credit for a job well done in highlighting and promoting the conservative view of judging. Which thanks to Sotomayor herself, now seems to be the standard best understood by the American public at large.
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