Thursday, May. 28, 2009
Missed the News?
We've got you covered with this recap of the week's headlines:
here comes the judge
On Tuesday, President Obama finalized his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 54, to fill the upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court bench, making her the first Hispanic to serve on the nation’s highest court, if ratified by Congress.
And it didn’t take long for all sides of the political spectrum to start chiming in.
Here are a few of those comments:
• “In choosing Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court of the United States, President Obama has chosen someone like himself: a hugely positive symbol with huge substance concerns,” said Oran P. Smith, President of the Palmetto Family Council. “Judge Sotomayor’s judicial record and writing clearly show she believes a court is not an applier of law written by elected representatives, but just another political advocate for social change.”
• “The daughter of working-class Puerto Rican parents, Judge Sotomayor grew up in public housing reading Nancy Drew books, which sparked her interest in the law profession,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis in a prepared statement. “Driven by her mother’s belief in the power of education and her own unrelenting work ethic, Sotomayor excelled in school, winning a scholarship to Princeton University, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She then entered Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.”
• U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) was a bit more subdued in his appraisal, stating via e-mail, “I do not know Judge Sotomayor. I look forward to meeting with her and discussing the important issues confronting the court. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I intend to be fair and firm in my questioning of the nominee. I hope we will have a meaningful opportunity to explore the qualifications, judicial temperament and judicial philosophy of Judge Sotomayor.”