Regardless of whom the President nominated for Supreme Court, there was going to be sections of the Republican Party (For those of you who have no idea who the Republicans are, they’re an insignificant regressive party from the old days) that complained. Short of the President nominating a fat, grey haired, slightly racist, anti-gay white man famed for singing the National Anthem before bed, Republicans were always going to complain.
As it happens, the President positively confused Republican opinion, provoking even more right winged nonsense that we’re all becoming used to from people like Cheney and Limbaugh; by nominating Federal Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court, to replace the retiring Justice David Souter.
Of course the conservative wing of America isn’t happy. Former Republican Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney’s statement of opposition to Sotomayor’s nomination, is just more bitter ramblings of a dying Party. Romney states “The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is troubling.” He goes on to say “Her public statements make it clear she has an expansive view of the role of the judiciary.” He is in fact referring to the harmless remarks Sotomayor made in 2005, in which she stated that that the Court’s, are “where policy is made“. And so Romney, like other Republicans, is attempting to portray Sotomayor as a radical, as wanting to expand the limits of the Judiciary. As wanting to destroy the foundations of the Republic! Julius Caesar Sotomayor! Probably socialist and gay too.
It’s funny that Republicans should get all worked up about this, for two reasons. Firstly, because Sotomayor was right. Whilst the House and the Senate may make the rules, the Courts have to fill in the fine detail, when the rules are simply too ambiguous. The rulings of the Court, influence policy to a high degree. Hofstra University’s Professor of Law, Eric Freedman says “She was saying something which is the absolute judicial equivalent of saying the sun rises each morning. It is not a controversial proposition at all that the overwhelming quantity of law making work in the federal system is done by the court of appeals… It is thoroughly uncontroversial to anyone other than a determined demagogue.“
And of course, precedent is set by the Judiciary, it is a product of it’s time, and by that account, is policy making.
Secondly, it’s funny Romney should bring this apparent talk of expansion of the Judiciary into the spotlight now, given that he didn’t seem to have a problem when the Supreme Court dubiously gave the 2000 Presidential Election to George W Bush, despite the fact that Gore had over 500,000 more popular votes. Which of course, led to George Bush quite ironically “spreading Democracy” across the World. Isn’t that the greatest influence on policy the Supreme Court has ever applied to America? Apparently Romney had no issue with the Supreme Court handing elections to those who don’t actually win the vote. Romney also doesn’t appear to be at all bothered that Justice Scalia, the conservative crusader, appears to have a deeply conservative agenda of his own going on, an activist in all but name. But Sotomayor making a comment four years ago, he has a problem with.
Fat idiot Rush Limbaugh also had something to say on this, but his comments, as always, are even more irrelevant but equally as pathetic, as Romney’s, so I wont get into it.
Meanwhile, in the World of the sane, Sotomayor is likely to be confirmed without problem. Whilst Democrats do not hold a filibuster-free majority, 59 Senators is more than enough to secure confirmation. It is unlikely that Congressional Republicans will attempt to block her nomination, because from a Party that is about as popular as cancer right now, attempting to block an Hispanic female candidate for Supreme Court. Research shows that the Republicans gained 31% of the Hispanic vote in the 2008 Presidential election. Traditionally, the Hispanic vote has been overwhelmingly in favour of the Democrat candidate. In 2000 Bush managed took 35% of the Hispanic Vote. In 2004, he managed to attract a 10 point rise to 45%, of the Hispanic vote. In both 2000, and 2004, the Hispanic vote was crucial for the Presidential race. Judging by 2008 standards, the Republicans cannot afford to lose the confidence of the Hispanic voters any more than they already have. And so attempting to block the confirmation of the first ever Hispanic Supreme Court Judge Nominee, would be a disaster. Paradoxically for Republicans, if they do not try to block the nomination, the fact that Democrats have even nominated a Hispanic, will be a huge boost to their mid-term campaigns, and 2012 Presidential race.
The fact remains that the President could have nominated Moses for Supreme Court, and Republicans would have said he held deeply racist views over Egyptians and that his nomination is “worrying“. What Romney meant to say, was “Sotomayor isn’t white, or male, or middle aged, and she might even believe that gays aren’t the spawn of satan, which is worrying.“
To sum up, great choice for Supreme Court.
Posted by futiledemocracy 
