By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
Judge Sonia Sotomayor is wrongly being sold by Team Obama as an “empathetic nominee.” This adjective is shown a farce when one examines her record in two noteworthy cases involving Jeffrey Deskovic and Frank Ricci. In these instances, she acted callous and indifferent to the injustice and suffering of these men.
As a 17-year-old young man, Deskovic was convicted for the murder and rape of a classmate despite a negative DNA test. He ended up serving 16 years in prison before he was ultimately exonerated after additional DNA evidence proved another man was guilty. A good portion of his life was taken away by a justice system with Sotomayor playing judge.
Despite Deskovic serving 10 years in prison, Sotomayor refused to hear two of his valid appeals. These appeals were based on DNA evidence and coerced testimony. A county clerk gave his attorney inaccurate information and his attorney filed the appeal petition four days late. The court refused to hear this appeal, so the lawyer appealed the decision before Sotomayor’s court, arguing that the error was the fault of the clerk; therefore, the case ought to be heard given Deskovic’s innocence. Sotomayor ruled against hearing Deskovic’s appeal, effectively sentencing an innocent man to six more years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
“Despite Sotomayor’s rhetoric, her ruling in my case showed a callous disregard for the real-life implications of her rulings,” Deskovic says. “She opted for procedure over fairness and finality of conviction over accuracy. Many of the victims of wrongful convictions serving long sentences had exhausted their appeals long before they were exonerated. In how many of those cases did Sotomayor vote to refuse to even consider evidence of innocence?” Even though Sotomayor displayed a callous indifference to the suffering of this innocent man, Obama wants people to ignore this case and confirm her immediately because she is a “wise Hispanic Woman.”
By Cliff Kincaid, GOP USA
Bill O’Reilly has declared, “I don’t think she’s a racist,” in regard to Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, even though it turns out that her comment about a Latina woman making better decisions than a white man was repeated on several occasions. O’Reilly turns a blind eye to her raw display of racism because he doesn’t want to be accused of being a racist himself. This is how cowardly the sponsor of the “No Spin Zone” has become in the face of a politically correct “debate” that has already forced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to retract his charge of racism against her.
False accusations against white people are tolerated by the media, even the conservative media. This is why Al Sharpton is a frequent guest on the O’Reilly show, despite his participation in the Tawana Brawley hoax, whereby he falsely accused a group of white men of raping a black woman.
But accurate accusations of racism against members of minority groups who make racist statements are not tolerated. That is why Gingrich backed away from his accurate comments, and why O’Reilly said he didn’t want to have anything to do with them.
“When I did a Twitter about her, having read what she said, I said that was racist, but I applied it to her as a person,” Gingrich said on Face the Nation. “The truth is, I don’t know her as a person.” Gloria Borger on CNN reported that Republican senators had asked Gingrich to retract the charge. More cowardice.
Tags: Barack Obama, More Scandals, Sonia SotomayorBy Prerana Swami, CBS News
The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Tuesday that Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing will begin July 13, and Republicans are none too happy about it.
The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, said today that the date is too early and does not give Republicans enough time to examine Sotomayor’s record.
“I’m really a bit surprised,” Sessions said, according to Politico. “I don’t think our side has the time to do this right. … That’s a rushed time frame, and I don’t think that’s necessary.”
As the Associated Press reports, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of threatening Senate cooperation over the nominee by setting an impractical timetable.
“An arbitrary date on this nomination, when we’re not clear yet how long it’s going to take to work our way through her extensive record … strikes me as not a good way to proceed,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Tags: Barack Obama, ram through the Senate, rush confirmation, Sonia Sotomayor
By Israel Ortega, One News Now
Standing atop of the U.S. Supreme Court sits Lady Justice dressed in a Greco-Roman garment. She wears a blindfold, signifying an essential element of our country’s judicial system: Justice requires that all are treated fairly under the law, regardless of whether the person appearing before the court is rich or poor, white or black, man or woman.
Recently, President Barack Obama made history by appointing a Hispanic woman to the Supreme Court. Yet the question now is whether the nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, would adhere to the crucial principle of impartial justice. The fact that she might not raises serious concerns regarding her nomination to the highest court in the land.
By now, most Americans have read Judge Sotomayor’s comments: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” she announced in a 2001 lecture, later published in a California law journal.
These 32 words have become infamous over the past two weeks. But this isn’t the most disturbing part of her oft-quoted law-school speech. Worse are her comments that judges may lack the ability to be impartial. She said she embraces the idea (stated by another judge) that “there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives — no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging.
Tags: Barack Obama, Sonia Sotomayor, The ConstitutionThe White House signaled Thursday that President Obama is confident that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor won’t vote to overturn abortion rights.
Obama, a supporter of abortion rights, is “very comfortable with the fact that she shares a similar interpretation to the Constitution” as Obama, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
White House knows Sotomayor will keep the baby killing mills open
Sotomayor, who has served as a federal appeals court judge for more than a decade, has never ruled directly on a woman’s right to an abortion. Because of her thin record on the issue, pro-abortion rights advocates have called on Sotomayor to reveal her views on a constitutional right to privacy, which has been the legal key to upholding abortion rights.
In answering questions about the groups’ concerns, Gibbs noted that Obama, a former law professor, is familiar with the Constitution and has found Sotomayor to have similar views on it.
By Walter Alarkon, The Hill
Tags: Barack Obama, Pro Abortion, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme CourtUnited Press International
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Barack Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court pick is a racist and should withdraw her name from consideration.
The Georgia Republican made his comment a say after Obama announced he was nominating appellate court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the nation’s highest court, ABC News reported Wednesday.
Gingrich joined fellow conservatives such as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, calling Sotomayor a “reverse racist.”
The accusations came over comments Sotomayor made during a 2001 lecture at the University of California Berkeley.
Referring to former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s saying that “a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases,” Sotomayor said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
In a post on Twitter, Gingrich shot back: “Imagine a judicial nominee said ‘my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman’” and “new racism is no better than old racism.”
Tags: Newt Gingrich, Reverse racism, Sonia SotomayorBy NEOMI RAO, Wall Street Journal
Yesterday President Barack Obama announced his nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. She is federal circuit court judge Sonia Sotomayor. What sorts of questions should senators and the American people ask a nominee to the Supreme Court?
- Do you believe that judges should use “empathy” to decide cases? If so, what’s the difference between empathy and judicial activism? The president has emphasized empathy as a paramount judicial quality. Polls show, however, that Americans want moderate judges who follow the law, not their hearts. Chief Justice John Roberts said in his confirmation hearings that judges should act like umpires — calling the plays, not making them. Mr. Obama has suggested he wants a home-run hitter.
- Do you believe that interpretations of the Constitution should evolve to keep up with the times? If so, how would you decide when the Constitution needs updating? The president has said he believes that the Constitution has to change to keep up with the times, and in Ms. Sotomayor he has probably not chosen a candidate who believes in following the original meaning of the text. Nonetheless, constitutional text and original meaning should provide some constraint on the scope of interpretation. The nominee should be able to state some guidelines and limits for interpretation, including whether and how she would consider international law or the constitutional law of other nations.
- Should Supreme Court justices be bound by precedent? All justices sometimes overrule previous decisions. So when is it appropriate to do so? Of course, this is the question that senators use to probe nominees of Republican presidents to see whether they would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. For Ms. Sotomayor the question is whether she perceives any limits on the ability of the Supreme Court to read new rights into the Constitution.
Tags: 60% overturned record, Liberal Judge, Sonia Sotomayor
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