U.S. Supreme Court nominee and Federal Appeals Court judge Sonia Sotomayor (L) meets with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) (R), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill June 2, 2009 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The NewsHour is covering the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court this week, and SmartRegion.org would like to get a post for Patchwork Nation pulled together by Thursday. Even if you have time for just a few sentences, this will be invaluable as we gauge how her nomination is being received across our nation’s representative communities.
** You do not need to answer all of these questions, or any of them if you have other thoughts about Sotomayor’s nomination.
- What do you think of President Obama’s nomination of Sotomayor?
- Are people around you talking about Sotomayor this week – what are they saying about her? Positive/negative?
- Have you been watching or reading news about the hearings this week?
- How did people react when she was first nominated? Has anything changed in these opinions?
- Does the fact that she would be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court influence your opinion of her?
- Other thoughts?
8 comments
Betsy McBride says:
July 15, 2009 at 3:33 pm (UTC -4 )
There is little suspense, so following her testimony closely isn’t compelling. Watching on the NewsHour, it is clear that her responses will be appropriately measured. It is a tribute to the talent search function at the White House that they are able to find politically moderate albeit stellar, public servants. It is good that she is a “she” and also represents a portion of the population not as visible in leadership. We want everyone to know that neither gender nor race is a barrier to full participation.
Nadine S. Tatum says:
July 16, 2009 at 12:36 pm (UTC -4 )
After reading all I could get my hands on about Judge Sotomayor and watching most on the confirmation hearings on PBS, I have come to the conclusion that President Obama made the right decision in nominating her. While I don’t agree with all of her decisions, I am impressed with the judge’s intellectual rigor. I see her as a “wise judge” (note that I did not say “wise Latina” ) who will use all her talent and skill to render just decisions. Episcopalians are fond of speaking of the Anglican praxis of Scripture, reason, and experience. A wise Virginia bishop preferred to use the analogy of a tricycle–reason and experience were the smaller wheels and Scripture was the big wheel. I see legal decision-making (at its best) as using a similar framework, with reason and experience forming the smaller wheels of the tricycle, and Law, or, more specifically, the Constitution, (America’s secular “scripture”) forming the big wheel. My reading of Judge Sotomayor is that she lives this paradigm as a judge, and that is certainly enough to satisfy me that she will be an able Supreme Court justice,
HR Partnership says:
July 16, 2009 at 1:14 pm (UTC -4 )
Received via email:
“nothing of real substance comes out in the hearings”
-Clynton Caines, an electrical engineer and entrepreneur who is developing alternative energy products. He is president of VStarz Corp, and is a member of the Hampton Roads Technology Council and the Tidewater Government/Industry Council.
Kevin Gaydosh says:
July 16, 2009 at 6:50 pm (UTC -4 )
1. What do you think of President Obama’s nomination of Sotomayor?
Much like I had with Harriet Miers, I have doubts if she’s indeed the best available jurist out there. Seems a high percentage of her appellate court decisions are overturned once they reach the court for which she’s been nominated. I’d be interested comparing her career to Miguel Estrada, a Hispanic nominated by the last president but who couldn’t even get fair hearing on his nomination because of the Democratic members of the committee.
2. Are people around you talking about Sotomayor this week – what are they saying about her? Positive/negative?
Basically three things: 1) Unanimously people are happy to hear about her up-from-boot-straps career and life story; far from unique, most people I know consider hers a “typically wonderful American story.” 2)About her track record, it’s mostly unimpressed or negative, including from women. 3) Everyone is resigned to the fact that she’ll be confirmed, just as they are convinced this is a fairly overt step by the president to curry favor with Hispanic voters (something that I haven’t heard discussed much).
3. Have you been watching or reading news about the hearings this week?
I’ve been reading and watching the coverage voraciously. Anything’s better than watching wall-to-wall Michael Jackson funeral coverage.
4. How did people react when she was first nominated? Has anything changed in these opinions?
Like most nominations, we didn’t know anything about her. Then we read the national papers and watched for myself her YouTube quotes about “wise Latina vs. white man” and “courts making policy.” (I think we should at least be honest and acknowledge that there’s a double standard about what she said and how it’s been accepted or explained in the battle of the partisan talking heads.) The Firefighter’s case being overturned was the last straw for me; shouldn’t we be nominating lawyers who WIN cases before the court or jurists who have their rulings upheld by it?
5. Does the fact that she would be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court influence your opinion of her?
No, and that seems to me to be the very crux of the issue that’s gotten her the most bad press. It shouldn’t matter that she is; there’s nobody of my ethic background sitting on the Court, yet it is still my Supreme Court and I have to live with its decisions. Also, seems like the pundits who continuously stress that our country must “look beyond race and gender” are always the ones keeping score of such things.
Kevin Gaydosh, Communications Consultant and blogger at http://hotshotprguy.blogspot.com/
Tamara Hoffmann Shipp says:
July 16, 2009 at 6:52 pm (UTC -4 )
It makes me proud as an American that a woman who speaks English as a second language has been nominated for the Supreme Court. It’s what this country is all about: opportunity for all. It is patently disingenuous for some to suggest that her background and life experiences will unduly influence her decisions. Aside from the fact that her record does not support that contention, I honestly don’t think there is a person among us who is not influenced to some degree by her or his life experiences. Such experiences form the fabric of who we are. Perhaps Judge Sotomayor’s error was in being honest about it.
Tamara Hoffmann Shipp, writer, graduate of Old Dominion University (B.A., M.A.), resident of Chesapeake, former Hill staffer.
Danae Jones Aicher says:
July 16, 2009 at 6:53 pm (UTC -4 )
As far as I’m concerned, there is only one major disappointment with Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination/confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court: that we aren’t using the controversy surrounding her comments about “a wise Latina” to have an honest discussion about race in America. Personally, I’m pleased by her nomination. She is more than qualified (which should go without saying) and the fact that she is an ethnic minority, hopefully, means she will bring a new perspective which is often under-represented. This is good news. It is what makes us America. Unfortunately, her comments- however offensive they may or may not be- are being used for political attacks rather than a jumping off point for us to have a real, open and honest discussion about race. When we are willing to have that discussion, we’ll be an even better America.
Danae Jones Aicher
Writer, political/social commentator
Rick Steroni says:
July 16, 2009 at 6:54 pm (UTC -4 )
“she is just simply not telling the truth”
http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2009/07/she-is-just-simply-not-telling-the-truth.html#comments
Rick Steroni, http://www.brutallyhonest.org
Hampton Roads Partnership says:
July 18, 2009 at 8:55 am (UTC -4 )
http://patchworknation.csmonitor.com/csmstaff/2009/0717/patchwork-nation%E2%80%99s-views-on-sotomayor/