Legal News

More, More, More on Sotomayor

By Ashby Jones

We didn’t stay up half the night reading articles about Sonia Sotomayor from the Web’s more remote reaches, like some of you Scotus geeks may have (God bless you). But we feel as if we’ve read quite a bit about her by now, enough to bring you a quick bullet-point on the articles we read last night and this morning that offer up something new, fresh — maybe even exciting (though we’ll let you be the judge on that last point).

In no particular order, the articles we liked and therefore suggest you read:

Bravin, Koppel and Liptak on her judicial record: Here at the WSJ, Jess Bravin and Nathan Koppel — and at the NYT, Adam Liptak — do really nice work examining Sotomayor’s body of work. The takeaway: While Sotomayor skews liberal on social issues and, to a lesser degree, business issues — there’s enough frisson among her opinions to detach her from any easy labeling. Writes Liptak on her opinions: “they reveal no larger vision, seldom appeal to history and consistently avoid quotable language. Judge Sotomayor's decisions are, instead, almost always technical, incremental and exhaustive, considering all of the relevant precedents and supporting even completely uncontroversial propositions with elaborate footnotes.”

Sandomir on the Baseball Strike: Want to know how — and why — Sotomayor ended the baseball strike of 1994/95? Check out Richard Sandomir’s piece in the NYT. In the words of Don Fehr, the executive director of the Major League Baseball players’ union: Her ruling did not produce an agreement, but it gave the parties time to get on with normal business and get back to the bargaining table and produce an agreement.”

Happy Hispanics, But Unhappy Mexicans? The Arizona Republic takes a look at an interesting faultline running through the Hispanic community. While Hispanics of all stripes are happy about the nomination, some Mexican-Americans are wondering: why not them, given that they make up 70 percent of the nation’s Latinos. “I’m thrilled having a Latina, but I also think there are many Mexican-Americans well-qualified for that role, says Luz Sarmina, president and CEO of Valle del Sol, a non-profit community-based Latino organization in Phoenix. “I don’t want to pit one group against the other, but I think I would have been thrilled to see a Mexican-American.”

What Happens Now? For more on the confirmation process, we refer you to the Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray and Michael Shear, who report that the Obama administration hopes to have Sotomayor confirmed by August 7.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 27, 2009 (boomark / email).