Obama Officially Selects Elena Kagan SCOTUS Nominee, Pushback Expected

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Obama Officially Picks Elena Kagan For U.S. Supreme Court Nominee


President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, declaring she would demonstrate the same independence, integrity and passion for the law exhibited by retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

"Elena is widely regarded as one of the nation's foremost legal minds," said Obama. "She's a trail-blazing leader."

The president also praised Kagan's temperament and her practice of "understanding before disagreeing."

Kagan called the Supreme Court an "extraordinary institution," one that advances "the tenets of our Constitution." She called her nomination "the honor of a lifetime."

Her selection, reported late Sunday by NBC News, positions the court to have three female justices for the first time in its history.

Kagan, 50, is known as sharp and politically savvy and has enjoyed a blazing legal career. She was the first female dean of Harvard Law School and the first woman to serve as the top Supreme Court lawyer for any administration.

Kagan would be the youngest justice on the court, which would give her the opportunity to extend Obama's legacy for a generation. She would also bring some fresh blood to the court's liberal wing in replacing the 90-year-old Stevens.

Democrats went 15 years without a Supreme Court appointment until Obama chose federal appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor last year to succeed retiring Justice David Souter.

When George W. Bush was in the White House, there was a conservative shift in the court's composition with the addition of Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate whose vote often made the difference in ideologically charged cases.

Kagan must win Senate confirmation, and she is expected to in the Democrat-led chamber. However, Republicans are likely to grill Kagan over her experience, her thin record of legal writings and her objections to the military's policy about gays.

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Supreme Court confirmation hearings are often politically charged events, and it could be especially heated coming just months before November congressional elections.

To stop her from becoming the nation's 112th justice, Democrats would have to abandon Obama and his second high court pick or almost all of the GOP senators would have to agree to filibuster the nomination — more than a year after seven of them voted for Kagan to become the solicitor general.

It is unlikely that Republicans will try to block her, said Manuel Miranda, chairman of the conservative Third Branch Conference.

A source close to the selection process said a central element in Obama's choice was Kagan's reputation for bringing together people of competing views and earning their respect.

Aides involved in the selection process tell NBC News that the president called Kagan at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday to tell her that she had been selected as the nominee.

Kagan came to the fore as a candidate who had worked closely with all three branches of government, a legal mind with both a sense of modesty and sense of humor. The source spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss factors that led to Kagan's impending nomination.

Kagan has clerked for Thurgood Marshall, worked for Bill Clinton and earned a stellar reputation as a student, teacher and manager of the elite academic world. Her standing has risen in Obama's eyes as his government's lawyer before the high court over the last year.

She is known for having won over liberal and conservative faculty at the difficult-to-unite Harvard Law School, where she served as dean for nearly six years.

As solicitor general, Kagan represents the U.S. government and defends acts of Congress before the Supreme Court and decides when to appeal lower court rulings.

Despite her background in law, Kagan would be the first justice without judicial experience in almost 40 years. The last two were William H. Rehnquist and Lewis F. Powell Jr., both of whom joined the court in 1972.

All of the three other finalists she beat out for the job are federal appeals court judges, and all nine of the current justices served on the federal bench before being elevated.

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The White House is expected to frame Kagan's lack of service as a judge in upbeat terms, underscoring that there are many qualified routes to the top of the judiciary.

Supreme Court justices wield enormous power over the daily life of Americans. Any one of them can cast the deciding vote on matters of life and death, individual freedoms and government power. Presidents serve four-year terms; justices have tenure for life.

If Kagan is confirmed, it would be the first time that the nine-member Supreme Court would have three women on the bench. She would be just the fourth woman to serve on the court, following current Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor and retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

She would be the third Jewish justice along with six Catholics. With Stevens' retirement, the court will have no Protestants, the most prevalent denomination in the U.S.

Kagan, who is unmarried, was born in New York City. She holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton, a master's degree from Oxford and a law degree from Harvard.

Kagan and Obama both taught at the University of Chicago Law School in the early 1990s.


Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Whitehouse.gov

Elena Kagan: Legal Expert Who Lacks Bench Experience

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Elena Kagan: Possible "10th Justice" Has Deep Legal Knowledge But No Bench Experience


The woman President Obama has chosen to be the 112th justice of the Supreme Court has never been a judge -- not that it was of her own choosing.

Elena Kagan was 39 when President Bill Clinton nominated her for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, sometimes referred to as the second most important court in the land. The Republican-controlled Senate never brought her nomination for a vote before Clinton's presidency expired.

Kagan, now 50, went on to become the dean of Harvard Law School, and despite the lack of judicial experience, her name has appeared on every list of people a Democratic president should consider for the high court.

The expectation only grew when Obama made Elena Kagan, a native New Yorker, the first woman to be named as solicitor general, the government's top appellate lawyer and representative at the Supreme Court.

Again, the lack of specific experience did not hold her back. She had never argued an appeal before she got the job. She has now argued six cases before the Supreme Court, and been the government's chief strategist in legal appeals both at the high court and around the country.

Even though the solicitor general is often called "the 10th justice," she would be the first to join the court since Thurgood Marshall in 1967. It would be especially sweet for Kagan, who was a clerk for the civil rights icon in 1987-88, has referred to him as "the most important lawyer, I think, of the 20th century." He nicknamed her "Shorty."

"She is a first-rate legal scholar, but she brings much more than that," Walter Dellinger, an acting solicitor general under Clinton, said when she was nominated as the first woman to hold his old job. "She knows government, and she knows how to run institutions."

She was confirmed by the Senate 61 to 31 in March 2009, with the support of each of the last eight men who have held the title, Democrats and Republicans alike, starting with President Ronald Reagan's solicitor general, Charles Fried, who calls her "awesomely intelligent."

Republicans questioned her experience and some complained that she was not more forthcoming in her answers during her hearings.

Kagan said the job of solicitor general is not one that requires her to have opinions, except about how to best defend federal statutes and the positions of the Obama administration.

"I do not think it comports with the responsibilities and role of the solicitor general for me to say whether I view particular decisions as wrongly decided or whether I agree with criticisms of those decisions," she repeatedly said.

As solicitor general, she has argued some of the most important constitutional challenges to congressional actions. Despite the lack of experience, she has from the beginning displayed a confident, at times conversational, style.

She has stood up to tough questioning from the justices, matched their challenges and fared better with some than others. Those who regularly watch the court perceive a sometimes scratchy relationship with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., one of the court's sharpest questioners, when he disagrees with the advocate.

In Kagan's first argument, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, she held her own with Justice Antonin Scalia, who is one of the court's great skeptics of Congress's ability to remain impartial in writing laws that affect political campaigns.

"We are suspicious of congressional action in the First Amendment area precisely because we -- at least I am -- I doubt that one can expect a body of incumbents to draw election restrictions that do not favor incumbents. Now is that excessively cynical of me? I don't think so."

Kagan replied: "I think, Justice Scalia, it's wrong. In fact, corporate and union money go overwhelmingly to incumbents. This may be the single most self-denying thing that Congress has ever done."

Sometimes, the familiar tone does not work. When Scalia questioned her argument in a different case, she asked him how he might argue differently.

"Well, I'm not making the argument," he responded.

Roberts jumped in to say, "Usually we have the questions the other way."

"I apologize," a chastened Kagan said.

It is premature to say how the government has fared under her leadership because the court has not yet released even half of its opinions. The government lost the Citizens United case 5 to 4, and Obama and Senate Democrats have criticized the court's conservatives for an "activist" opinion that overturned court precedent.



Some groups on the left have criticized Kagan for defending Bush administration policies that seek to limit the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees and agreeing that terrorism suspects may be detained indefinitely.

It was clear during Kagan's confirmation hearings last year that lawmakers recognized she might one day be sitting before the committee as a Supreme Court nominee. She ventured only safe answers that were built on respect for the court's precedents rather than her own reading of the law or the Constitution.

She did say that she did not believe there was a constitutional right to same-sex marriage -- the court has not ruled on such an issue -- and that she was not "morally opposed" to capital punishment. She agreed with Republicans senators that the country was at war, and said she did not believe detainees being held in Afghanistan had the right to due process, as the court has ruled for those at Guantanamo Bay.

Kagan says she has "no reason to believe that the court's analysis was faulty" in the justices' 5 to 4 ruling that the Second Amendment provided the right for private gun ownership, but also adopted the view of her predecessor in the George W. Bush administration that her office would continue to defend federal restrictions on some firearms.

Kagan was educated at Princeton, Oxford and Harvard Law, and is such a product of New York City that she did not learn to drive until her late 20s. According to her friend John Q. Barrett, a law professor at St. John's University, it is a skill she has not yet mastered.

She has never married and has no children.

After clerking for Marshall, she worked for two years in the Washington offices of Williams & Connolly, her only private legal experience.

She left to teach law at the University of Chicago, where she was part of a group that tried to interest a part-time constitutional law lecturer named Barack Obama in committing to a full-time life in academia. She joined the Clinton administration, first as an associate counsel and then as a domestic policy adviser. "Wonderwonk" was the title of the article the New Republic wrote about her role when the administration worked with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to try to give the government more regulatory power over tobacco.

When the Senate failed to act on her 1999 nomination to the appeals court, the seat eventually went to Roberts, now chief justice.

She joined the Harvard faculty as a professor and was shortly named dean. She's won widespread praise for bringing peace to warring factions of the faculty and, in the words of faculty member and liberal scholar Laurence H. Tribe, "transformed a school that was much less than the sum of its parts" when she arrived.

She made the school friendlier to students, with free coffee and a volleyball court, enacted financial incentives to encourage public service after graduation, began an ambitious effort to revamp the curriculum and went on a hiring binge to bring to Cambridge superstar legal scholars from across the ideological spectrum.

"No dean of any modern American law school has done what she's done," Tribe said.

Kagan stood up to faculty unease over the hiring of Jack L. Goldsmith, who for a time had led the Office of Legal Counsel under Bush. Kagan also recruited Cass R. Sunstein, a prolific legal scholar and Obama friend from the University of Chicago.

"She is very, very highly respected by everybody I know," said Theodore B. Olson, a former Bush solicitor general who is a stalwart of the Federalist Society. He said Kagan has been "very gracious" to conservative students and faculty at Harvard, "and that isn't always the case at law schools around the country."

The most controversial position in her background is the strong stand she took in challenging the Solomon Amendment, which required universities that received federal funding to cooperate with military recruiters on campus.

In filing a friend of the court brief opposing the amendment, she and others at Harvard argued that the military's ban on gays violated the law school's right to prohibit employers who discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled the amendment unconstitutional, she directed the school's Office of Career Services to stop providing help to military recruiters, although she said in a letter to the faculty that the military retained full access to students through the Harvard Law School Veterans Association.

Kagan called the military's ban on gays "a moral injustice of the first order," adding, "The importance of the military to our society -- and the extraordinary service that members of the military provide to all the rest of us -- makes this discrimination more, not less, repugnant."

She relented when the case moved to the Supreme Court, and the position she took in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR) was unanimously rejected by the court.

She said during her solicitor general hearings that she thought the government would be on solid legal ground in defending the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.



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Sources: MSNBC, Washington Post, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Laura Bush Praises Pres. Obama's SCOTUS Nominee Sonia Sotomayor

Huffington Post----

WASHINGTON — Former first lady Laura Bush says she's pleased that President Barack Obama nominated a woman for the Supreme Court.

"I think she sounds like a winner and a good nominee," Bush said of Sonia Sotomayor, the federal appeals judge Obama picked.

Mrs. Bush said in an interview broadcast Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" that "as a woman, I'm proud that there might be another woman on the court. I wish her well." She was interviewed in Dallas, where the Bushes moved after their White House tenure.

On another subject, Mrs. Bush said her husband will have no comment on any Obama decisions. He feels that as a former president, "he owes President Obama his silence on issues and there's no reason to second-guess any decisions he makes," Mrs. Bush said.


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Sources: Huffington Post, Wikipedia, Google Maps

Sotomayor Injures Her Ankle At La Guardia Airport (Video)

Washington Post----

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was taken to George Washington University Medical Center in the District this morning for X-rays of her right ankle after stumbling at the La Guardia airport in New York, White House officials said.

The X-ray revealed a small fracture in her ankle. She was released from the hospital after less than two hours and is now using crutches, said Ben LaBolt, an assistant press secretary at the White House.

"This morning, on the way to Washington, D.C., Judge Sotomayor tripped at LaGuardia Airport. After an X-ray at Medical Faculty Associates, it was determined that Judge Sotomayor has a small fracture in her right ankle," LaBolt said. "She has been treated and released, and is looking forward to keeping her full schedule of meetings on Capitol Hill this afternoon."

LaBolt said Sotomayor was rushing through the hallways at LaGuardia to catch her flight when she injured her foot. He said she boarded her plane despite the injury and traveled to the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House before determining that she needed treatment.

The judge, who was nominated by President Obama to be an associate justice on the court, had been in New York over the weekend and was returning to Washington, where she is scheduled to continue meeting with senators today.

LaBolt said she will meet with: Sens. Max Baucus, Charles Grassley, Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu, Jeanne Shaheen and David Vitter.

Her brief visit to the hospital is an indication of how her life has changed since the nomination. Her face is now recognizable around the country, and even a visit to get medical care is quickly noticed.

Sotomayor was spotted at the Ambulatory Care Center at 22nd and I Streets in Washington arriving in a wheel chair and surrounded by an entourage of security officials and aides.

One person who saw her arrival at the hospital said she arrived in one of two black sedans typical of those used by Washington politicians.

(CNN reports on this story.)




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Sources: Washington Post, CNN, Politico, Google Maps

Ronald Reagan Employed Same Sexist G.O.P. "Judicial Temperament" Tactic With SCOTUS Pick Sandra Day O'Connor (Video)

Daily Kos TV----

The ORIGINAL “reverse sexist”: Ronald Reagan pledged female Supreme Court nominee.

Surprise, surprise: Ronald Reagan was guilty of the same sort of "identity politics" that conservatives are accusing President Obama and Judge Sotomayor of practicing.

During the closing days of the 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan pledged to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court, saying one of the first openings "will be filled by the most qualified woman I can find…it is time for a woman to sit among our highest jurists."

Reagan also pledged to appoint women to lower federal courts "in an effort to bring about a better balance on the federal bench."

With his appointment of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on July 7, 1981, Reagan kept his promise, saying "I’ve long believed that the time has come for the highest court in our land to include not only distinguished men, but distinguished women as well."

Watch:



Posted May 27, 2009, 7:42 AM PT by Jed Lewison • First broadcast: Jul 7, 1981

Sources: Daily Kos, Daily KosTV, Wikipedia

President Obama Sells Sotomayor Credentials To Congress, Urges Quick Confirmation

Sonia Sotomayor's Impressive Resume & Key Case Rulings....Liberal SCOTUS Nominee or No?

• Age: 54 (Born June 25, 1954, New York City)


Judicial Career:

• U.S. Appeals Court judge, 2nd Circuit, 1998-present

• U.S. District Court judge, 1992-1998

• Nominated to federal bench by Bush in 1991, Clinton in 1997


Government/Legal Career:

• Former N.Y. County Assistant District Attorney, 1979-1984

• Former private practice attorney, Pavia & Harcourt, New York, 1984-1992


Politics:

• Confirmed by Senate 67-29 in 1998

• Confirmation to current seat took over 1 year

• Was opposed by majority of GOP senators

• Was unopposed in 1991 confirmation process


Historic Milestones If Nominated:

• Would be first Hispanic Supreme Court justice

• Would be third female Supreme Court Justice (second on current Court)


Education:

• J.D., Yale Law School, 1979

• B.A., Princeton, 1976 (summa cum laude)


Academic Positions:

• Adjunct Professor, New York University School of Law since 1998; lecturer-in-law, Columbia Law School, since 1999


Professional Associations:

• American Bar Association

• Puerto Rican Bar Association

• Hispanic National Bar Association

• Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage

• New York Women's Bar Association


Judicial Committees & Activities:

• Former Member, Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts


Other Activities:

Former member, Board of Directors, New York City Campaign Finance Board; Former member, Board of Directors, State of New York Mortgage Agency; Former member, Board of Directors, Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund; Former member, Board of Directors, Maternity Center Association; Former member, New York City Campaign Public Finance Board (Mayor's Appointee); Former member, Board of Directors, State of New York Mortgage Agency (Governor's Appointee)


Honors & Awards:

Herbert L. Lehman College, Degree of Law Honoris Causa, 1999; Brooklyn Law School Degree of Juris Doctor Honoris Causa, 2001; Princeton University, Degree of Juris Doctor Honoris Causa, 2001;


Publications:

Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed Rights, 88 Yale Law Journal 825 (1979); Sonia Sotomayor & Nicole A. Gordon, Returning Majesty to the Law and Politics: A Modern Approach, 30 Suffolk U.L. Rev. 35 (1996)


Possible Controversial Positions and Statements:

• Wrote the 2008 opinion supporting the City of New Haven's decision to throw out the results of a firefighter promotion exam because almost no minorities qualified for promotions. The Supreme Court heard the case in April 2009 and a final opinion is pending.

• Sided with environmentalists in a 2007 case that would have allowed the EPA to consider the cost-effectiveness of protecting fish and aquatic life in rivers and lakes located near power plants. Was overturned by the Supreme Court.

• Supported the right to sue national investment firms in state court, rather than in federal court. Was overturned unanimously by the Supreme Court.

• Ruled that a federal law allowing lawsuits against individual federal government officers and agents for constitutional rights violations also extends to private corporations working on behalf of the federal government. Was overturned by the Supreme Court.

• Sotomayor was first appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by a Republican President, George Bush, but it was a Democrat, Sen. Patrick Moynihan, who recommended her to Bush.

• In a 2005 panel discussion at Duke University, Sotomayor told students that the federal Court of Appeals is where "policy is made." She and other panelists had been asked by a student to describe the differences between clerking in the District Court versus in the Circuit Court of Appeals. Sotomayor said that traditionally, those interested in academia, policy, and public interest law tend to seek circuit court clerkships. She said, "All of the legal defense funds out there, they're looking for people with Court of Appeals experience. Because it is -- Court of Appeals is where policy is made. And I know, and I know, that this is on tape, and I should never say that. Because we don't 'make law,' I know. [audience laughter] Okay, I know. I know. I'm not promoting it, and I'm not advocating it. I'm, you know. [audience laughter] Having said that, the Court of Appeals is where, before the Supreme Court makes the final decision, the law is percolating. Its interpretation, its application." [Duke University School of Law, 2/25/2005, 43:19, http://realserver.law.duke.edu/ramgen/spring05/lawschool/02252005clerk.rm]

• At a 2001 U.C. Berkeley symposium marking the 40th anniversary of the first Latino named to the federal district court, Sotomayor said that the gender and ethnicity of judges does and should affect their judicial decision-making. From her speech:

"I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society....

"I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that - it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others....

"Our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor [Martha] Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." [U.C. Berkeley School of Law, 10/26/2001]


Cases Reviewed by the Supreme Court:

• Ricci v. DeStefano 530 F.3d 87 (2008) -- decision pending as of 5/26/2009

• Riverkeeper, Inc. vs. EPA, 475 F.3d 83 (2007) -- reversed 6-3 (Dissenting: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg)

• Knight vs. Commissioner, 467 F.3d 149 (2006) -- upheld, but reasoning was unanimously faulted

• Dabit vs. Merrill Lynch, 395 F.3d 25 (2005) -- reversed 8-0

• Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. vs. McVeigh, 396 F.3d 136 (2005) -- reversed 5-4 (Dissenting: Breyer, Kennedy, Souter, Alito)

• Malesko v. Correctional Services Corp., 299 F.3d 374 (2000) -- reversed 5-4 (Dissenting: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer)

• Tasini vs. New York Times, et al, 972 F. Supp. 804 (1997) -- reversed 7-2 (Dissenting: Stevens, Breyer)

• Affirmative Action (New Haven firefighter case): Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel that ruled in February 2008 to uphold a lower court decision supporting the City of New Haven's decision to throw out the results of an exam to determine promotions within the city's fire department. Only one Hispanic and no African-American firefighters qualified for promotion based on the exam; the City subsequently decided not to certify the results and issued no promotions. In June 2008, Sotomayor was part of a 7-6 majority to deny a rehearing of the case by the full court. The Supreme Court agreed to review the case and heard oral arguments in April 2009. Ricci v. DeStefano 530 F.3d 87 (2008)

• Environment (Protection of fish at power plants): Sotomayor, writing for a three-judge panel, ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency may not engage in a cost-benefit analysis in implementing a rule that the "best technology available" must be used to limit the environmental impact of power plants on nearby aquatic life. The case involved power plants that draw water from lakes and rivers for cooling purposes, killing various fish and aquatic organisms in the process. Sotomayor ruled that the "best technology" regulation did not allow the EPA to weigh the cost of implementing the technology against the overall environmental benefit when issuing its rules. The Supreme Court reversed Sotomayor's ruling in a 6-3 decision, saying that Sotomayor's interpretation of the "best technology" rule was too narrow. Justices Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg dissented, siding with Sotomayor's position. Riverkeeper, Inc. vs. EPA, 475 F.3d 83 (2007)

• Taxes (Deductability of trust fees): In 2006, Sotomayor upheld a lower tax court ruling that certain types of fees paid by a trust are only partly tax deductable. The Supreme Court upheld Sotomayor's decision but unanimously rejected the reasoning she adopted, saying that her approach "flies in the face of the statutory language." Knight vs. Commissioner, 467 F.3d 149 (2006)

• Finance (Rights of investors to sue firms in state court): In a 2005 ruling, Sotomayor overturned a lower court decision and allowed investors to bring certain types of fraud lawsuits against investment firms in state court rather than in federal court. The lower court had agreed with the defendant Merrill Lynch's argument that the suits were invalid because the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 required that such suits be brought only in federal court. The Supreme Court unanimously overturned Sotomayor's ruling in an 8-0 decision, saying that the federal interest in overseeing securities market cases prevails, and that doing otherwise could give rise to "wasteful, duplicative litigation." Dabit vs. Merrill Lynch, 395 F.3d 25 (2005)

• Health Insurance (Reimbursement of insurance benefits): In 2005, Sotomayor ruled against a health insurance company that sued the estate of a deceased federal employee who received $157,000 in insurance benefits as the result of an injury. The wife of the federal employee had won $3.2 million in a separate lawsuit from those whom she claimed caused her husband's injuries. The health insurance company sued for reimbursement of the benefits paid to the federal employee, saying that a provision in the federal insurance plan requires paid benefits to be reimbursed when the beneficiary is compensated for an injury by a third party. The Supreme Court upheld Sotomayor's ruling in a 5-4 opinion. Justices Breyer, Kennedy, Souter, and Alito dissented. Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. vs. McVeigh, 396 F.3d 136 (2005)

• Civil Rights (Right to sue federal government and its agents): Sotomayor, writing for the court in 2000, supported the right of an individual to sue a private corporation working on behalf of the federal government for alleged violations of that individual's constitutional rights. Reversing a lower court decision, Sotomayor found that an existing law, known as "Bivens," which allows suits against individuals working for the federal government for constitutional rights violations, could be applied to the case of a former prisoner seeking to sue the private company operating the federal halfway house facility in which he resided. The Supreme Court reversed Sotomayor's ruling in a 5-4 decision, saying that the Bivens law could not be expanded to cover private entities working on behalf of the federal government. Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer dissented, siding with Sotomayor's original ruling. Malesko v. Correctional Services Corp., 299 F.3d 374 (2000)

• Intellectual Property (Distribution of freelance material): As a district court judge in 1997, Sotomayor heard a case brought by a group of freelance journalists who asserted that various news organizations, including the New York Times, violated copyright laws by reproducing the freelancers' work on electronic databases and archives such as "Lexis/Nexis" without first obtaining their permission. Sotomayor ruled against the freelancers and said that publishers were within their rights as outlined by the 1976 Copyright Act. The appellate court reversed Sotomayor's decision, siding with the freelancers, and the Supreme Court upheld the appellate decision (therefore rejecting Sotomayor's original ruling). Justices Stevens and Breyer dissented, taking Sotomayor's position. Tasini vs. New York Times, et al, 972 F. Supp. 804 (1997)


Other Notable Cases:

• Abortion (Mexico City policy): Sotomayor ruled against an abortion rights group in its challenge to the so-called "Mexico City Policy," which states that nations that receive U.S. funds may neither perform nor promote abortions. The abortion rights advocates alleged that the policy violated their First Amendment, due process, and equal protection rights. Sotomayor upheld a lower court ruling dismissing the case, saying that the group's First Amendment rights had not been violated and that it had not been denied due process. On the equal protection claim, Sotomayor wrote, "The Supreme Court has made clear that the government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position, and can do so with public funds." Sotomayor did not address the underlying abortion issue. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy vs. Bush, 304 F.3d 183 (2002)

• Major League Baseball Strike: As a district court judge, Sotomayor issued an injunction against team owners for alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act during collective bargaining negotiations with the MLB players association. The owners had sought to end the system of free agency and salary arbitration and imposed a lock-out against players as negotiations began to break down. The ruling ended the longest baseball strike in history. National Labor Relations Board vs. Major League Baseball, 880 F. Supp. 246 (1995)

Sources: CNN, Day Life

"The Court of Appeals Is Where Policy Is Made."

"The Court of Appeals is where Policy is Made." Judge Sonia Sotomayor

(Judge Sotomayor speaking at Duke University School of Law in 2005.)




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Sources: Youtube, Day Life, Duke University School of Law, Wikipedia, Google Maps

Karl Rove Also Slams Sotomayor....Proves She's Definitely The Right SCOTUS Pick!

"She could be even more liberal than Souter was."

"She has a reputation on the Court of Appeals that she’s on for being very liberal."

Since Karl Rove former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to former President Bush is also slamming Judge Sonia Sotomayor, this must be further proof President Obama made the right decision in nominating her to take Justice Souter's place on the SCOTUS bench.

(Karl Rove attacking Judge Sotomayor's intelligence.)



Sources: Day Life, the Daily Beast, Think Progress, Fox News, Youtube

Rush Limbaugh Calls For Sotomayor's Failure Too (Yawn)

"Do I want her to fail? Yeah. Do I want her to fail to get on the court? Yes! She’d be a disaster on the court." Rush Limbaugh....May 26, 2009

Political Star wannabe/ radio entertainer Rush Limbaugh stated today that he would like to see Judge Sonia Sotomayor fail.

Yawn....

Excuse me but didn't he express those same sentiments about President Obama a couple of months ago?

Forget about it Rush and go crawl back under your rock if you know what I mean.

While its true Sotomayor is going to experience a little opposition and some push back, for the most part she's going to be confirmed. Even the G.O.P. knows this.

So to Rush's rantings I say again.....Yawn.

What do I have to say about Rush's perspective....according to the First Amendment he does have the right to Freedom of Speech.

If your ears will allow, you can listen to the audio below of his divisive rhetoric and negative comments about Pres. Obama's SCOTUS nominee.



Sources: MSNBC, Think Progress, Day Life, Reuters, Youtube

Meet Judge Sonia Sotomayor.....Her Amazing Life Journey (Video)

Check out this video from the Law School Admission Council on the inspiring life story of President Obama's SCOTUS nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.




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Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Law School Admission Council, Day Life, Reuters, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Pres. Obama's SCOTUS Pick Sonia Sotomayor Represents The American Dream & Trumps G.O.P.'s Filibuster Plans!

"An inspiring woman who I believe will make a great Justice." President Obama...May 26, 2009.

"I Firmly Believe in the Rule of Law as Foundation of All our Basic Rights!" Sonia Sotomayor....May 26, 2009.

Now that President Obama's has announced his pick for the next vacant U.S. Supreme Court seat Sonia Sotomayor, we can all breath a sigh of relief.

Sonia Sotomayor 54, hopefully soon to be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is not only an excellent choice as it relates to legal matters, but she is also an excellent example of America's diversity and opportunity.

Her personal, very inspiring life story also represents the real American Dream.

Sonia Sotomayor grew up in a South Bronx housing project.

Her father a Factory Worker died when she was 9, thus she raised by a Single Mother who supported Sonia and her younger brother while working as a Nurse.

Sotomayor's brother is now a Physician.

Sonia's seemingly dire circumstances as child could have hindered her destiny or killed her creativity.

However Sonia who is an avid reader, often found herself swept away into another world by reading Nancy Drew mystery books which helped to fuel her interest for a career in law.

She studied hard and excelled in academics, graduating as Valedictorian from Blessed Sacrament and at Cardinal Spellman High School in New York.

Sonia went on to attend Princeton via a scholarship, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa and was a co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize.

While a student at Yale Law School she became editor of the Yale Law Journal and worked as managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order.

Post law school, Sotomayor was employed as an Assistant D.A. in Manhattan.

She later entered private practice, worked as a Prosecutor, than on to the Judicial bench.

Sotomayor's judicial experience consists of her serving as a Trial Judge, after being appointed in 1992 by former President George H.W. Bush (Republican) and currently a NY Federal Appeals Court Judge. Former president Bill Clinton (Democrat) nominated her in 1998.

She was confirmed by a bi-partisan vote of 67-29.

Sotomayor compared to retiring SCOTUS Justice David Souter, is known to rule and make passionate legal arguments both in favor of the law and from the heart.

If confirmed Sonia Sotomayor will become the first Hispanic-American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

For a more in depth look at Judge Sonia Sotomayor's background check out this link over at the Huffington Post.

Looks as if President Obama (himself a Political Genius) has stumped the G.O.P. again. This time with his SCOTUS pick. ha-ha


(President Obama announces his SCOTUS pick, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.)



Sources: Whitehouse.gov, Huffington Post, Politico, Day Life, Reuters

Pres. Obama Expected To Announce His U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Today

"I think in any given pick, my job is to just find somebody who I think is going to make a difference on the courts and look after the interest of the American people. And so, I don't feel weighed down by having to choose a Supreme Court justice based on demographics. I certainly think that ultimately we want a Supreme Court that is reflective of the incredible variety of the American people." President Obama

Today President Obama is expected to announce his nominee for the next U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Obama's nominee if confirmed will replace justice David Souter, who is retiring this fall.

Many are speculating or hinting that the president should appoint a Minority or a Woman to fill Soulter's seat at the panel, however in a recent Gallup poll just 26 percent of American people considers race or gender to play major factor in his decision.

During a recent interview on C-Span, President Obama stated he is seeking a judge who possesses both Intellectual firepower and a common touch but doesn't feel weighed down by race or gender in his or her decision-making while on the bench.

Some of his possible choices are: Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, U.S. Appeals Court Judges Diane Wood and Sonia Sotomayor and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.



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Sources: Huffington Post, CNN, Newsmax, Newsdaily, Day Life, TIME, Flickr, Google Maps

C-Span Exclusive Interview - Pres. Obama on Health Care Reform & His U.S. Supreme Court Pick

"You have to have not only the intellect to be able to effectively apply the law to cases before you, but you have to be able to stand in somebody else's shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living." President Barack Obama...May 2009 during C-Span exclusive interview

C-Span has just released a 3-hour exclusive interview with President Obama focusing on some key political upcoming decisions he's facing.

During the segment President Obama revealed how despite experiencing some opposition and pushback he will continue forging on with his Health Care Reform agenda hopefully with Congress's cooperation, what special qualities he's seeking in a U.S. Supreme Court nominee and his future plans for helping to keep the U.S. Auto Industry stable, profitable yet competitive.



Sources: C-Span, LA Times, ABC News, Day Life, Political Base, Flickr, Youtube