Initial thoughts on President Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee

One of the reasons my interest waned the first couple times I attempted to keep a blog was my inability to write short pieces. Posting became arduous, and I just stopped. With that in mind, I am committed to writing shorter pieces this time around, though my first post is not representative of this new mindset. Again, we’ll see what happens.

As all of you by know, today President Obama put forth his first nominee to the Supreme Court when he nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor. I follow politics fairly closely, but I am not a legal scholar. Therefore, I must admit that what I know about Judge Sotomayor's record and beliefs is fairly limited. As soon as Justice Souter announced he would stepping down from the bench, Judge Sotmayor’s name was thought to be among the favorites to fill his seat. So, I’ve been reading up on her for the past few weeks. Based on that, and what I heard from her and the President today, here’s what I think right now.

First of all, I am thrilled that the President selected a woman and a Latino. It matters. As Judge Sotomayor herself once said, who we are, where we come from, and the experiences we have had in life define how we see everything, including the law. I’m sure this will be a Republican talking point when they make the claim against her, but her public recognition of what seems to me to be obvious is a breath of fresh air.

I liked that the President cited Judge Sotomayor’s intellect as a major factor in her receiving the nomination. This should go without saying, but after the last administration, it’s pretty clear that intellect is often minimized, even marginalized and pathologized.

I’m not so excited that the President stated that Judge Sotomayor is not someone who sees things through an ideological lens? Really? And how is that possible? We all see things through an ideological lens; and those who don’t, or at least claim not to, should be questioned as not having intellectual acumen. An ideology is what helps us see individual actions and circumstances in a larger context. We all live our lives with ideas of what is right and wrong, just and unjust. To suggest otherwise is simply political pandering.

Finally, it looks like despite all the right’s claims of socialism and the like, the President is behaving much as he has throughout the course of his life – as a moderate, slightly to the left of center pragmatic politician. While I like much of what I know about Judge Sotomayor, she is not a radical, or even what I would consider to be a staunch progressive. History shoes that it’s hard to predict what kind of Justice Judge Sotomayor will become if/when she is confirmed. But if her history is any indication, we can expect to see a Justice that believes more in incremental changes than sweeping, monumental ones. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.