Word: sotomayor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Barack Obama said he wanted: a Supreme Court nominee with a "common touch." With Sonia Sotomayor, he got somebody with a common touch and an uncommon story. Nobody expects you to be chosen someday for the Supreme Court when your father was a welder with a third-grade education. Nobody expects you to make it to Princeton when you come from a public-housing project...
...barring a big surprise, most people expect Sotomayor to be on the court when it opens its next term in October. The Democrats already have 59 votes in the Senate. And Sotomayor isn't a barn-burning leftist. She tends to write narrowly crafted rulings that focus on close application of the law. She resists rhetorical flourishes and sweeping philosophical statements. Altogether, she's a liberal jurist who will be replacing another mostly liberal vote on the court, David Souter, which means her arrival there won't do much to change the ideological balance. (See pictures of Sotomayor's career...
...vetting team has once again missed something. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and member of the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that Obama has agreed to a John Roberts timetable: it took 74 days from the day the Chief Justice was nominated to swear him in. By that yardstick Sotomayor could be confirmed before Congress begins its summer recess on August 7, as Senate majority leader Harry Reid said he would prefer. Republican senators, however, have already indicated they think that could be unrealistic. "We would prefer it be done as quickly as possible however given the breadth and length...
...nomination of Sotomayor comes at a bad time for the GOP. Republicans have only just begun the long process of wooing Latinos burned by the 2005-06 immigration battles. Obama won 67% of Latino votes, vs. John McCain's 31% - enough to help Obama win Florida, New Mexico and Colorado. Hispanics had actually been somewhat disappointed in Obama's Latino-lite Cabinet and his unwillingness to take on immigration reform as a top issue in his first 100 days. But that will probably be forgotten now. The Hispanic community was "thrilled" by Obama's pick of Sotomayor, said David...
Given that history, Sessions is surely aware that he cannot afford to become the story by saying anything indelicate. His statement Tuesday reflected just how careful he has to be. "The Senate Judiciary Committee's role is to act on behalf of the American people to carefully scrutinize Ms. Sotomayor's qualifications, experience and record," he said, striking a neutral tone. "Of primary importance, we must determine if Ms. Sotomayor understands that the proper role of a judge is to act as a neutral umpire of the law, calling balls and strikes fairly without regard to one's own personal...