Senator Whitehouse’s First Round of Questions to Judge Sotomayor
The Washington Post has the first round of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse‘s questioning of Judge Sonia Sotomayor available at their website.
Ed Whelan of National Review Online notes that the exchange concerning Judge Sotomayor’s involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense fund contradicts what was reported in the New York Times earlier this year. This is what was said today…
WHITEHOUSE: And in terms of the way that the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund operated, you were a member of the board. Is that correct?…and this was what was reported in the Times in May…
SOTOMAYOR: I was.
WHITEHOUSE: Did the attorneys for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund make it a practice to vet their legal filings with the board first? Did the board approve individual briefs and arguments that were made by attorneys in the — for the organization?
SOTOMAYOR: No, because most of us on the board didn’t have civil rights experience. I had actually when I was a prosecutor in — in private practice, that wasn’t my specialty of law. Even if they tried to show it to me, I don’t know that I could have made a legal judgment, even if I tried. That was not our function.
Ms. Sotomayor stood out, frequently meeting with the legal staff to review the status of cases, several former members said. And so across her 12 years on the board — she left when she was appointed a federal judge in 1992 — she played an active role as the defense fund staked out aggressive stances on issues like police brutality, the death penalty and voting rights.Other than that, I can’t find anything particular interesting — except for the fact that Senator Whitehouse may have outed himself as a closet originalist…
The board monitored all litigation undertaken by the fund’s lawyers, and a number of those lawyers said Ms. Sotomayor was an involved and ardent supporter of their various legal efforts during her time with the group.
WHITEHOUSE: I see the Constitution as being changeless, timeless and immutable.But to be honest, after his opening statement, I’m not really sure that the Senator knows what he’s saying when he’s talking about legal matters.
Anti-gun punkass Sheldon has an armed driver/bodyguard of course.What else would you expect?
I don’t recall Chafee or Pell ever needing such security-they walked around like regular guys.
They were straight shooters so they had nothing to fear,I guess.
So do the body guards of anti-gun rights advocate Rosie O’Donnell, Joe B. It’s all very confusing.
Wow. Judge Sotomayor told a real whopper about her activities as legal counsel for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. Great find, Andrew.
Are Supreme Court candidates under oath when they appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee? In other words, did she commit perjury? In any case, do we want someone on the Supreme Court who lies egregiously?
Forget Sotomayor.Ruth Bader Ginsburg lied through her teeth about having an open mind on the death penalty at her confirmation hearing and she got approved almost unanimously. Ginsburg served in an executive capacity for the ACLU where she made policy-not merely as a member of the organization.She has never recused herself in any case where the ACLU was a litigant.Toilet bowl ethics if you ask me. Ginsburg made a horrendous comment in Newport about how Jewish judges have made America a better place.What a prejudiced little devil she is.Can you imagine saying how Irish or Italian judges made this country better?But she gets away with it.Sometimes I am at a complete loss to understand people from her milieu-the leftist Jewish “intellectuals” who seem so desperate to change everything.She displays an arrogance that derives from her total ignorance of what this country is all about. Bill Cosby took heat for being a truth teller about the Black community.I have the same attitude about a segment of the Jewish community-the ones who Michael Savage(even a stopped clock is right twice a day)says “drank the bad seltzer”.I understand that remark-you had to grow up where I did to really get what he means. People like Ginsburg promote an image of Jews that is disgusting and it’s enhanced by the media. I will bet very few people are aware that the Chief of Staff of the Air Force,Gen.Schwartz is Jewish,or that the former Vice Commandant of the Marines Corps,Gen.Magnes was.Or former Maj.Gen Schachnow,who commanded the Special Warfare Training Center. No,we hear about Henry Waxman and Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer. I’m just venting here. The left wing media are having an ogasm over Sotomayor like she’s the first Hispanic judge or something.It’s all a bunch of carefully choreographed perception peddling.Facts can’t be allowed to… Read more »