Much ado about Sotomayor

Do you remember back in the old days when the President nominated a judge to the Supreme Court and the Senate hearing was nothing more than to confirm that the nominee was alive and wasn't a child molesting mass murderer? Yeah, me neither. I think Justice Scalia was the last one that had a hearing like that all the way back in 1986 or so. Ever since the Democrats came out swinging for Robert Bork, confirming a Supreme Court Justice has been a blood sport. Unless the nominee is made by a Democrat president, of course (see, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer).

After the relative ease of W's nominees, we now come to President Obama's first nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. Its pretty fair to say that Judge Sotomayor is not a legal giant, but she is an Hispanic female, which is apparently much more important than legal ability. She's had a relatively undistinguished career at both the District and Circuit Court level; reversed quite a bit, but nothing like the judges of the Ninth Circuit. Legally, her nomination is better than Harriet Miers, not as good as John Roberts. But most importantly, she will be the first Hispanic member of the Court ... assuming we're not going to count Benjamin Cordozo, the son of Spanish and Portugese immigrants.

The question is not whether or not she is going to be confirmed -- that's a foregone conclusion with the makeup of the Senate -- but whether she is the best nominee for the job. Personally, I think there are much better judges available, not to mention plenty of attorneys who would be great nominees, regardless of their liberal/conservative leanings. She's basically Obama's O'Connor -- not a great jurist, but she fits a demographic need. The nomination is a big old "blah."

I guess it will be fun to watch the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee try to make hay with the few controversial remarks and opinions Sotomayor has made, but its all for naught. The votes are there for the confirmation. Save your bullets for a nominee that matters. In the end, the nomination will not make much of a splash. She'll get confirmed with a few Republicans squawking about how she's a judicial activist, etc. Big deal, she's replacing a judicial activist. If she was replacing a Scalia or Thomas or Roberts, then we'd need a big fight. At the end of the day, Sotomayor will be sitting on the Supreme Court when it convenes the first week of October. She'll never be a Scalia, but she will be on the Court for a long time. Basically, this is much ado about nothing ... a/k/a Sotomayor.