Judging Judge Sonia Sotomayor

It’s not exactly a surprise that President Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, said Ed Morrissey in Hot Air. The question is whether Republicans will put up a fight against a judge whom Karl Rove says would likely be more liberal than the justice she’d replace, David Souter. Analysts have described Sotomayor as a “liberal activist” whose rulings are often reversed, so there could be plenty of ammunition if conservatives choose to fight.

Nominating Judge Sonia Sotomayor certainly proved that Obama isn't afraid of a fight, said Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic. “He sometimes doesn't fight for things that we want him to fight for. But he isn't afraid” to square off against those on the Right who have been attacking Sotomayor’s record ever since her name appeared on Obama’s shortlist.

Republicans and moderate Democrats unhappy with Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s jurisprudence are “in a lose-lose position,” said Stuart Taylor Jr. in National Journal. Sotomayor has said that a “wise Latina woman” could well make better judicial decisions than a white man because of the richness of her experience—a statement that reeks of identity politics and potential judicial bias. But it will be hard for Republicans to object to a Hispanic woman nominated by a black president without reinforcing their image as “the white-male party.”

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How fortunate that Obama ignored the “ugly, vindictive, and anonymous smear campaign,” said Glenn Greenwald in Salon, the right wing waged against Judge Sonia Sotomayor with the help of Jeffrey Rosen’s hit piece in The New Republic. To paraphrase Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, a diverse bench is not a second-rate bench. And forget the “inane objection” to the video of Sotomayor saying, accurately, that appellate judges make policy. She’s a good choice.