The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Sotomayor

McConnell to Vote Against Sotomayor

By | 07.17.09 | 2:56 pm

With the growing number of Republican Senators saying they’ll vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor — Dick Lugar of Indiana, Mel Martinez of Florida and Olympia Snowe of Maine are the latest — Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell is apparently feeling compelled to come out strongly against her. More…

More Republicans for Sotomayor

By | 07.17.09 | 10:19 am

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is winning over more Republicans every day. As I noted yesterday, by the end of the hearing Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was sounding like one of her biggest defenders.

Today, Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) came out with this statement:

I have listened to the testimony

More…

A Quick Primer on ‘Incorporation’

By | 07.16.09 | 5:35 pm

What is “incorporation?”

Among the many legal terms mentioned over the last four days of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, the term “incorporation,” when it comes to the Second Amendment right to bear arms, is probably the most confusing.

Incorporation in this context refers to whether the Bill More…

Lindsey Graham: GOP Isn’t Just ‘the Party of Short White Guys’

By | 07.16.09 | 4:03 pm

Despite his apparent disagreement with her on a range of issues, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is emerging as one of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s biggest supporters.

Perhaps because it’s clear she’ll be confirmed and he wants to convince Americans there’s a “softer,” more inclusive side to the Republican party, More…

NRA Opposes Sotomayor Nomination

By | 07.16.09 | 3:15 pm

Although the National Rifle Association has — at least officially — stayed out of this fight until now (though judging from some senators’ heavy questioning on gun issues, it was clearly weighing in behind the scenes), this afternoon the group issued a statement saying it would oppose the nomination of More…

Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas Cited Foreign Law

By | 07.16.09 | 11:09 am

Here’s an interesting discovery by Rick Pildes, law professor at New York University, posted on Balkinization.

Turns out Justice O’Connor wrote an opinion in 1998, joined by her conservative colleagues William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, that cited as persuasive an aspect of foreign law, notwithstanding Republicans’ More…

Bill Ayers Is Back — Dressed Up as a Wise Latina

By | 07.15.09 | 2:06 pm

Claiming that Americans must “Stop Sotomayor” from wreaking havoc and terrorism on the country from a perch on the nation’s highest court, this new Committee for Justice ad warns that like “Barack Obama’s buddy, Bill Ayers,”  Judge Sonia Sotomayor led a group supporting violent terrorists. That support apparently took More…

Republicans Remain Nervous About Sotomayor and Gun Rights

By | 07.15.09 | 11:49 am

Second Amendment rights remain high on the list of issues Republicans are still nervous about when it comes to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. But no matter how they try to over-simplify the still-undecided question of whether the Constitution actually grants individual citizens a fundamental right to bear arms, Sotomayor More…

What Is It About the Law That John Cornyn Doesn’t Understand?

By | 07.15.09 | 10:50 am

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is a former State Supreme Court judge.  So it’s hard to believe that he really doesn’t understand what judges do. Yet that’s exactly what his line of questioning to Judge Sonia Sotomayor on day three of her confirmation hearing this morning suggested.

Here’s Cornyn, speaking to More…

Graham to Sotomayor: Do You Have a Temperament Problem?

By | 07.14.09 | 5:02 pm

Ouch. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) just lit into Sonia Sotomayor for being “a terror on the bench” and “nasty to lawyers,” and for attacking lawyers she disagrees with, citing the comments of anonymous lawyers quoted in the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary.

“You stand out like a sore thumb in More…