Opinion

Sotomayor Would Be the Most Experienced Justice on the Court

By Guest Writer, Unfiltered 6-24-09

As most everyone knows, President Obama has selected Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the approaching retirement of Justice David Souter in October. In his announcement of Sotomayor as his chosen nominee, Obama described Sotomayor as “an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice,” and added that she “has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice.”

Sotomayor’s supporters hail the historic nature of her nomination, but her attackers howl with cries of ‘foul!’, claiming that Sotomayor was chosen solely because of her ethnicity, gender, and life story—the things that vocal far-right-wing conservatives point to as cause for alarm. Rush Limbaugh and others claim that Sotomayor’s appointment is “reverse racism.” This accusation seems to have been spun out of this single, out of context sound-byte from a 2001 speech Sotomayor gave at U.C. Berkeley:  “I would hope a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

In context, this section of Sotomayor’s speech A Latina Judge’s Voice referred directly to cases involving gender and ethnic discrimination—so although poorly phrased, particularly if examined without context, the threat of “reverse racism” is for the most part deflated. In fact, the speech largely focused on the importance of objectivity and the need for judges to be aware of personal prejudices or bias so that they do not interfere with the duty to faithfully interpret and uphold the Constitution.

As for the other claim, that Sotomayor was chosen solely because of her ethnicity and gender, or her inspiring life story, the accuracy of that can be assessed with an examination of her resume and judicial record, which has been exhaustively documented by the Senate Judiciary Committee Questionnaire.

Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton. She was a member of the honor society Phi Beta Kappa and also the co-recipient of the Pyne Prize, the highest honor awarded a Princeton undergraduate to the top scholar of the class.

At Yale Law School, Sotomayor was the editor of the Yale Law Review, as well as the managing editor of what is now known as the Yale Journal of International Law. She received her Juris Doctorate in 1979.

Before ascending to the bench, Sotomayor spent thirteen years before it, practicing trial advocacy in both the criminal and civil spheres.  After graduating from Yale Law, she spent five years as an Assistant District Attorney for Manhattan, prosecuting criminal cases. 

Afterwards, she went into private practice for eight years, working in international corporate litigation, dealing predominantly with intellectual property, bank and real estate law, and contract law.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush appointed Sotomayor to the District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Six years later, President Bill Clinton nominated Sotomayor for the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals; a nomination confirmed by a 67-29 vote from the Senate. 

In the eleven years she has since served in the Second Circuit, Sotomayor has sat on the bench for over 3,000 panel discussions; and has produced over 300 opinions on the Circuit Court alone; only three of which were overturned, out of the five that continued to the Supreme Court on appeal.

During her past eleven years on the Second Circuit Court, Judge Sotomayor has also been adjunct professor of law for three different law schools: New York University Law School; Columbia University; and University of Puerto Rico.  At all three of these graduate schools, Sotomayor lectured on trial and appellate advocacy, as well as Federal appellate procedure.

With this knowledge of Sotomayor’s judicial experience and record, the core question of whether or not Judge Sonia Sotomayor is qualified to be a Justice on the highest court and legal authority in the United States can be answered. We can compare her record to that of the potential colleagues who currently comprise the Supreme Court. After all, the most important criteria to be examined in the consideration of the qualifications of any Supreme Court nominee is their federal judiciary C.V.—how much experience do they have with Federal law and Appellate Court Procedure, and most importantly in Constitutional Law?) Do they have experience judging cases that require interpretation of constitutional complexities?  How qualified is Judge Sotomayor in this regard?

For that matter, how qualified are the current members of the Supreme Court? For the eight Justices who will remain in service after Souter’s retirement, their federal judiciary experience prior to Supreme Court Confirmation is shown here.

John Paul Steven, 5 years
Antonin Scalia, 4 years
Anthony McLeod Kennedy, 13 years
Clarence Thomas, 1.5 years
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 13 years
Stephen Gerald Breyer, 13 years
John Glover Roberts Jr., 2 years
Samuel Alito Jr., 15 years

With her 17 years of federal judiciary experience in both criminal and federal appeals courts, Judge Sotomayor would be the most experienced justice on the Supreme Court bench.

Looking at Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s record of academic success, her breadth of experience in advocating and judging cases across the legal spectrum—spanning criminal, civil, and constitutional law and legal procedure, and the length of her federal judiciary experience—makes her more than qualified to be the next Supreme Court Justice—not because of race, gender, or life-story—because of her experience and her record of past work and successes.

The antonym, or reverse of the word “racist” is “objective, non-discriminating, unprejudiced, or fair”—which seems far more accurate to Sotomayor’s case as evidenced by her moderate and passionately non-partisan record, and strong stance against political influence and involvement in the judiciary sphere.
So ironically, with that one nonsensical and offensive slur, Limbaugh was accurate in describing Sonia Sotomayor after all— paradoxically managing to be simultaneously right and wrong.

Rochelle Jackson is a student at the College of Idaho in Caldwell.

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