Published June 9, 2009 | 8:00 pm
The Biden Event
As Ed notes, press accounts of yesterday's White House Sotomayor Pep Rally with law-enforcement groups quote Vice President Joe Biden as saying "Judge Sotomayor has your back" and "throughout this nominating process [sic], I know you'll have her back." [I think Biden means the "confirmation" process; the "nomination" process was over when the President nominated Judge Sotomayor.]
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Published June 9, 2009 | 3:01 am
JCN MEMO: Sotomayor: No "Law-and-Order" Judge
TO: JCN MEMBERS AND INTERESTED PARTIES
FROM: WENDY E. LONG, COUNSEL
DATE: JUNE 9, 2009
Today’s staged attempt by Vice President Biden and the Obama Administration to portray Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a “law-and-order” judge is an unprecedented political campaign by a White House for a Supreme Court nominee.
In the past, outside groups have held such events independent of the White House and were not controlled by the White House. Today’s event looks like a county sheriff election rally. The purpose of this sideshow is to avoid facts in Sotomayor’s actual record that indicate a soft-on-crime judge who twists the law, particularly law at the intersection of race and crime issues, and who avoids binding precedent as a lower court judge in ways that unnecessarily favor criminals and hinder law enforcement.
Published June 5, 2009 | 7:00 am
JCN Letter to Senators: Sotomayor Questionnaire Omits Memo on Death Penalty and Racism
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
June 5, 2009
Re: Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Incomplete Senate Questionnaire
Dear Senators:
A first read through Judge Sonia Sotomayor's U.S. Senate questionnaire for her Supreme Court nomination raises more questions than it answers. It is already clear that she has omitted controversial material from her past in which she asserts that "[c]apital punishment is associated with evident racism in our society" and advocates public opposition to restoring the death penalty in New York state.
Whatever the immediate cause of this glaring omission, the ultimate blame should be placed squarely at the feet of the White House and its attempt to rush the Senate into an unprepared confirmation hearing that overlooks critical materials. The White House has had a recurring problem in failing adequately to vet nominees. Yet the Obama Administration yesterday touted Sotomayor's questionnaire as having been returned to the Senate more quickly than those for the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.
Published June 5, 2009 | 4:21 am
Statement by Wendy Long, Counsel, Judicial Confirmation Network, regarding White House Memo to Senators Meeting with SCOTUS Nominee Sonia Sotomayor:
"This is the biggest piece of fiction writing I have seen. It bears no resemblance to reality. I have a hard time believing anyone in the GOP would buy this fantasy. The President voted against his own talking points when he voted against Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito as a Senator. He tried to block this philosophy by filibuster. And now he is serving them up to the U.S. Senate? They, of course, do not remotely describe the Obama nominee. The White House obviously has made a mistake, passing out the leftover talking points that must have been in the West Wing about Cheif Justice Roberts and Justice Alito."
Published June 5, 2009 | 3:20 am
JCN Senate Letter
Dear Senator:
Over the next several weeks, Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be making her courtesy visits to you and your colleagues. At the same time, the Judiciary Committee will be entering into the phase of the confirmation process where her body of judicial decisions and written opinions begin to be evaluated. Based on what the White House has said, it is a voluminous appellate record--participation in over 3,000 panels and nearly 400 written opinions.
