Legal News

Sotomayor: Soon-To-Be the Nation?s Most Famous Door-Answerer

By Ashby Jones

So what happens now for Judge (soon-to-be-Justice) Sonia Sotomayor? On Saturday, she’ll be sworn onto the Supreme Court in a ceremony performed by Chief Justice John Roberts.

And that’s when the fun ends.

In Friday’s NYT, Adam Liptak previews the work Sotomayor’s got cut out for her. Her first case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, to be heard just over a month from now, concerns how elections are financed, and has broad implications for both election law and First Amendment jurisprudence. After that, the Court’s work will resume in its more-or-less traditional fashion, with decisions over cert petitions and then, the hard job of having to hear — and decide — dozens of cases.

Writes Liptak:

In addition to the blockbuster election-law case, the new term is frontloaded with important First Amendment, business, criminal and patent cases. Justice Sotomayor's early votes and opinions, along with alliances she forges, will provide answers to at least some of the questions she avoided in confirmation hearings.

Our favorite part of the NYT story, however, are the reflections from other justices on their first days at the court. “I was frightened to death for the first three years," said Justice Breyer, in a 2006 interview. Justice Souter, according to the NYT, once described coming to the court in 1990 as like "walking through a tidal wave."

And then there’s Justice Brennan: "I say categorically that no prior experience, including prior judicial experience, prepares one for the work of the Supreme Court," wrote Brennan in 1973. "The initial confrontation on the United States Supreme Court with the astounding differences in function and character of role, and the necessity for learning entirely new criteria for decisions, can be a traumatic experience for the neophyte."

We also love this: At their private conferences, whenever someone knocks on the door, Sotomayor — as the junior-most justice — will be required to answer.

And what about the emergence of a judicial philosophy? We probably won’t see one right away, says NYU’s Rick Pildes, who clerked for Justice Marshall: "Most newcomers tread gently as they come to terms with the dynamics of the group and a daunting array of new issues, including questions lower court judges never face, such as how bound to be by prior Supreme Court decisions. The cases are harder, the ramifications of decisions far more consequential."

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 07, 2009 (boomark / email).