With the retiring of Justice Souter, Obama inally gets to select his first appointment to the Supreme Court. I expected that Obama would probably pick a moderate conservative type person. I don't know if Sotomayor is that type yet, although she does comes with some conservative credentials.
My concern over any judicial candidate comes down to one main issue, civil rights especially in the sphere of church and state issues.
I've tried to do some research on her rulings. The media currently is much more focus about her MLB ruling than anything else.
As a district judge, she advanced First Amendment religious claims by tossing out a state prison rule banning members of a religious sect from wearing colored beads to ward off evil spirits...
Which is a ruling I would agree with, even though the logic makes my skeptical bones itch.
...and by rejecting a suburban law preventing the display of a 9-foot-high menorah in a park
Could be a troublesome ruling. I hope Sotoamayor did not rule in favor of the state endorsing one religious preference over another. I simply can't find any more information. Any help would be appreciated.
Also, expect the same old, tired and tedious conservative attacks on Sotomayor. Time reports:
"Judge Sotomayor is a liberal activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written..." said Wendy E. Long.
This attack is getting old and as pale white as the Republican party has become in the last decade. It's like the person who simply loves everything on the menu. After awhile, the word "love" is meaningless.
Just like the "activist judge" meme of the right-wing.
Despite the inventible media battle between republicans and democrats over Sotomayor's eventual appointment, my concern will still be focused on church and state separation.
If Sotomayor is anything like Scalia or Thomas in this regard to church and state seperation -- welcome to the United States of Christian Theocracy.
