Link to Story: http://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/251301/tribe-obama-sotomayor-not-nearly-smart-she-seems-think-she-ed-whelan

Harvard law professor Larry Tribe wrote the following letter to his protégé, President Barack Obama, shortly after Justice Souter’s announced that he would retire from the Supreme Court. In the following exerpt from that letter he is writing about Obama’s potential nomination of Sonia Sotomayor as Souter’s replacement.

Bluntly put, she’s not nearly as smart as she seems to think she is, and her reputation for being something of a bully could well make her liberal impulses backfire and simply add to the fire power of the Roberts/Alito/Scalia/Thomas wing of the Court on issues like those involved in the voting rights case argued last week and the Title VII case of the New Haven firefighters argued earlier, issues on which Kennedy will probably vote with Roberts despite Souter’s influence but on which I don’t regard Kennedy as a lost cause for the decade or so that he is likely to remain on the Court.

Below is the full letter.

Link to Letter: http://www.eppc.org/docLib/20101028_tribeletter.pdf

More on Sotomayor: http://www.islandoflogic.com/index.php/tag/sonia-sotomayor/

Sotomayor’s responses to “What does the Constitution mean to you?”

• I like to drink a lot of prune juice to take care of constitution.
• Oh, that Constitution!
• Well that was written by a lot of white men and I am a wise Latina.
• The Constitution has something to do with the law. Right?
• Wait! Wait! Don’t tell me I know this.
• Well if it is law, then it is flexible like the rest of the law and open to interpretation and empathy.
• Can someone get me a dictionary? I’m not sure what empathy means, or even flexible for that matter.
• I am really wise though.
• And a Latina.
• And Obama said I have empathy.

Today in a rare demonstration of bi-partisan cooperation both Republican and Democrat Senators physically chased Obama’s appellate court nominee from the Senate chambers. The chase occurred right after the Senators heard testimony and saw a video of nominee Sony Sotmayor giving a speech to the Harvard Law School in 2003. In the speech he said “a wise white man might arrive at a better legal decision than a black man”. Immediately after that statement was heard Senator Harry Reid began yelling “racist” at the nominee. Several other Senators joined in and it appeared that a fight might break out. Sony ducked several punches and ran out of the chambers and the Capitol. Several Senators did try to chase the nominee down, but Sony got away and was last seen running down the mall. There is no word on if he was injured or not. A panting Christopher Dodd was asked why the reaction and he said “If Obama ever sends a racist nominee like that down here again, I will chase him (Obama) out of the White House myself”. The White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, during a press conference later in the day, declined to comment on the incident; except to say that the Administration stood behind it’s nomination of Sotmayor.

Releated Stories: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/29/connecticut-firefighters-vindicated-supreme-court-ruling/

As another blogger recently posted, “Beam me up Scotty… no intelligent life here…” The ability to logically deduct and reason is becoming an uncommon commodity on this earth. What was at one time known as “common sense” is no longer common. I am officially renaming it to the” uncommon sense”. On what planet does it make logical sense, especially one that has made such great advances in race relations and equal rights for all, and in a nation where the voice synonymous with Civil Rights once said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” to say that a judge who is an enforcer and interpreter of a law that is color blind, needs to have “empathy” and rule in favor of minorities simply because of their minority status? Where is the logic in the belief that a judge needs to disregard the raw facts and strict interpretation of the law which deals with all equally in disregard of color, and rule in favor of skin color? This type of judicial logic sets back Civil Rights 60 years and is an overcorrection for wrong that definitely needed to be corrected, but not swung back in the opposite direction. Both Obama and Sotomayor have a philosophy of reparations that need to be made as a payback for the mistreatment that minorities endured in times gone by. That is the reason for policies like Affirmative Action and this empathetic judicial philosophy. Since I am a minority (I am a white male), I do not want special treatment such as Affirmative Action or as in Sotomayor’s recent ruling on the Connecticut Firefighters. It is an insult to my intelligence and abilities, to say that because of my minority status that I should be able to pass a test at a lower score than a member of a majority. I know everybody is looking for a shortcut to get to where they are going, but where is the pride for example that Clarence Thomas has for getting to the position that he holds today because of his own merit and hard work and not just because he is a minority. The fact that the Supreme Court ruling was 5 to 4 in favor of overturning Sotomayor’s previous decision is a bittersweet victory for me. It’s great that the decision was overturned, but we have 4 completely idiotic illogical thinkers on the court, and I use the term “thinker” rather loosely. We also have a President now that is making it his duty to pack the court with such illogical justices. Lord, help us all.