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Sonia Sotomayor's Pro-Government Record on Criminal Justice

Another snippet on Justice Sonia Sotomayor's record in criminal cases when she was an appeals court judge on the Second Circuit:

Her appellate record in opinions she wrote, as the New Yorker reports based on analysis by University of Texas law professor Stefanie Lindquist, is 81 percent pro-government and 19 percent pro-defendant. I asked Lindquist to run the numbers on the other judges in the Second Circuit, and in a random sample from 1998 to 2002, their votes were 60 percent pro-government to 33 percent pro-defendant (the remainder fell somewhere between the two sides). So on a court where the majority of judges were appointed by Democratic presidents, Sotomayor tilts to the right on criminal justice matters. Which suggests she may sometimes part company from her liberal-moderate colleagues on the Supreme Court in criminal cases, too. For a much more detailed analysis of her votes compared to the rest of the Second Circuit, check out this Brennan Center link.

And then there's this from Senator Leahy's staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee, looking at all her criminal appeals votes (as opposed to just the opinions she wrote): She "affirmed criminal convictions 92 percent of the time and reversed convictions only 2 percent of the time." No comparison to her Democratic-appointee colleagues, but when she was on a panel with two Republicans, she agreed with them in  these cases 97 percent of the time.

Can Liberals Count on Sotomayor?

From Lauren Collins' profile of Justice Sonia Sotomayor in The New Yorker: "A study of Sotomayor’s criminal decisions by the University of Texas law professor Stefanie Lindquist found that, of sixty-seven majority opinions involving criminal matters, eighty-one per cent were pro-government and nineteen per cent were pro-defendant. 'People who think she’s going to be a really reliable liberal on all issues—I don’t know!' one of Sotomayor’s former clerks said."

I e-mailed Lindquist to ask how Sotomayor's record in criminal cases stacks up in comparison to other appeals court judges nominated by Democrats versus Republicans. So more on this soon. But my hunch is that as a former prosecutor, the justice is more liable to see things a cop or a prosecutor's way than some of her liberal colleagues are. Here's one case along those lines that gave me pause during the confirmation process. We'll know more about Sotomayor's approach to criminal law by the end of the term, given the court's docket. I do think, based on her questions at oral argument, she'll come down on the side of banning life without parole as a punishment for juveniles. But in other cases where it's a question of making life easier or harder for prosecutors or the police? As her clerk said, if you're a liberal, you might not want to count on her.

The Sotomayor Confirmation and the Gates Arrest

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in support of Judge Sonia Sotomayor this morning almost entirely along partisan lines—13 to 7, with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina the only Republican in favor. Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. She made it through her hearings without the “meltdown” that Graham said would be needed to stop her confirmation, and also without giving Republicans any additional ammunition to oppose her. Yet today’s "no" voters included John Cornyn of Texas, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee and so presumably thinks about the long-term national health of his party, and comes from a state that is 36 percent Hispanic, and Jon Kyl of Arizona, which is almost 30 percent Hispanic. The GOP stance leaves the party without an answer to this headline in Politico: “Democrats have huge day with Hispanics.”

From Samoas to Sotomayor: Girl Scouts at the Confirmation Hearing

A post from Double X writer Meredith Simons:

When a pack of smartly-uniformed firefighters strode out of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing Thursday, they were greeted by a throng of reporters—and six girls in green t-shirts, their point-and-shoots at the ready. The members of Greater King David Baptist Church's Girl Scout troop had just listened to two of the firefighters testify, and now they crowded together, photographing the firemen as they walked by. This was the best day of their trip. (Read more in Double X.)

No More Mr. Nice GOP

A guest post from Double X intern Meredith Simons:

If Sen. Jeff Sessions' 20 minutes with Sonia Sotomayor this afternoon is any indication, Republicans feel a new urgency in this second (and final) round of questioning. Before he began, Sessions' aides distributed 70-page packets of highlighted, tabbed documents regarding Sotomayor's tenure with the Puerto Rico Education and Legal Defense Fund. When his turn came, Sessions dispensed with the usual niceties about how well the nominee is holding up and jumped right in, accusing Sotomayor of promoting the idea that judges' "backgrounds, sympathies, and prejudices" should and do affect judicial decisions ... (Read more in Double X.)

Emily Interviews Ruth Bader Ginsburg

How the New Haven Firefighters Ruling Affects Sotomayor

On Slate, Walter Dellinger and Linda Greenhouse agree that Judge Sotomayor has little to fear from today's Supreme Court ruling in favor of the white New Haven firefighters who sued their city when it threw out the results of a test for promotions. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion barely mentions the brief panel opinion Sotomayor signed. Justice Alito's concurrence is a little more critical, but not much. Court observers, including me, will patiently explain that the Supreme Court came up with a whole new rule in its decision today, which it wasn't Sotomayor's job, as a Second Circuit judge, to do. This is how the law is supposed to develop: The lower courts abide by their own precedents, and the Supreme Court's prior rulings, until the high bench tell them to shift course.

The Obama Straddle, in Three Acts

As riveting images and stories pour out of Iran, the Obama administration's lack of moral clarity today is getting to me. As in:

The State Department asked Twitter to defer maintenance so that Iranians could keep using the site to organize and inform, but Obama could only bring himself to say that he found the violence "deeply troubling," a muted response in the circumstances, as my colleague John Dickerson pointed out.

The administration will announce some benefits for the partners of gay federal employees today, but not full health insurance... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Sonia Sotomayor’s Lovely—and Expensive—Smile

Sonia Sotomayor has a lovely smile, and like many Americans she has paid a price for it. According to the questionnaire she completed as part of the Senate confirmation process, she owes approximately $15,000 to her dentist.

Several writers have been boggled by the size of the bill. In fact, it's pretty easy to spend $15,000 on dental treatment. Dental plans generally cover... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Is Sotomayor the New Alito?

Now that the insulting question of whether Sonia Sotomayor is just another Harriet Miers has subsided, a new one arises: Does Barack Obama's nominee have more in common with conservative justice Sam Alito? Liberals opposed Alito far more strenuously than they did current Chief Justice and George W. Bush nominee John Roberts. An Italian from working-class roots who also attended Princeton, Alito wields the same, "up from the bootstraps" personal history as Sotomayor. And—much like the Obama administration's emphasis on its nominee's "wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life's journey"—the Bush White House stressed... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

What About Sotomayor's Underlying Sentiment?

You're right, Hanna. The White House, and Sotomayor, too, by agreeing to the walk back, are giving the "wise Latina" mini-fracas more air, not less. Her speech sparked an interesting and even vital discussion this week about the value of having judges with different life experiences on the bench. Now we move to hedging and hemming and hawing? I'll ask the next question they'd all be better off not spending the weekend fielding... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

The Taming of the Times

Of Course the Bench Would Be Better With More Latina Judges

A guest post from Cornell law professor Eduardo M. Peñalver, who clerked on the Second Circuit for Judge Guido Calabresi and on the Supreme Court for Justice John Paul Stevens:

As some of you have pointed out, considered in the context the rest of her speech, it is clear that Sotomayor merely meant that appointing “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences” to the bench would (on average) do more to improve judicial decision-making than appointing a(nother) comparably wise white male judge. Understood in this way, the comment is benign and, more importantly, almost certainly true.

Crucial to understanding Judge Sotomayor’s argument is... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

It's Only Activism When Liberals Say It

Jason Linkins has a great piece up at Huffington Post quoting Justice Samuel Alito on the virtues of judicial empathy. (“When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.") And also quoting Antonin Scalia on the power of courts to “make law.” To which I add... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Enough Already About Sotomayor and Identity Politics

A guest post from Yale law professor Heather Gerken:

Over the last day, I’ve been fielding calls from reporters, members of your tribe, many of whom have asked some variation on the following questions: “What role does identity politics play on the Supreme Court, and should those who support civil-rights causes be happy about Judge Sotomayor’s nomination?” (This, for what it’s worth, is almost a direct quote).

There is only one sensible answer to such questions. Please stop. Honestly. It’s embarrassing even to have to say this, but let me spell it out... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

The Supremes Edition of the XX Gabfest

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Critics of Sotomayor Aren't Guilty of Racism or Sexism. They're Guilty of Ageism!

Sotomayor, Reverse Racist

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