A Very Busy Tuesday…

One down…

President Barack
Obama’s nomination of federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice
David Souter is the breath of fresh air the Supreme Court has needed since
President Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court in 1981.

If confirmed, Judge
Sotomayor would become the first Hispanic justice of the Supreme Court, and
only the third woman in its history.  She
describes herself as a "Newyorkrican" having been raised in the Bronx by her mother who at times was forced to work two
jobs to support Judge Sotomayor and her brother after the death of her father
when she was nine years old.

She is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School served
as a former prosecutor and private attorney…and became a federal judge for the
Southern District of New York in 1992, a job in which she was nominated for by
then President George H.W. Bush.  She
became an appeals judge in 1998 for the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which covers New York,
Vermont and Connecticut after being nominated by
President Bill Clinton.

She has the “stuff”
to be a great Supreme Court Justice.  Her
confirmation hearings should be interesting…as Republicans are going to have a
very hard time trying to beat her down, including Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions – the
top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who was recently quoted as saying
that  he wants the pick for the high
court to have “years of experience” on the bench.  Judge Sotomayor more than satisfies that
qualification.

Conservatives will
more than likely brand Judge Sotomayor as a liberal and complain that the
President’s nomination of her is in conflict with his noted desire to nominate
a judge who would uphold the Constitution. 
This will be an argument they will lose, as Judge Sotomayor is on record
as saying, “"I don't believe we should bend the Constitution under any
circumstance. It says what it says.  We
should do honor to it," during her 1997 confirmation hearings for the
appeals court.  However, recent comments
by the President, which include him saying that he is also looking for a judge
that will be empathetic – have Conservatives licking their chops because in
their very narrow way of looking at things…you can’t follow the Constitution
and have empathy…or is it be human?? 
Hmmm.

Regardless, it will
be intriguing to see how far Republicans are wiling to go to anger the Hispanic
community — the fastest-growing segment of our population and increasingly
important politically speaking — should they decide to block her nomination.

…One to go

At 1:00 EST today,
the California Supreme Court will issue its
much anticipated ruling on whether Proposition 8, approved by 52 percent of California voters last
November, is constitutional. 

It’s hard predict
which way the justices will fall.  Just
over a year ago, they struck down the State’s law limiting marriage to
opposite-sex couples saying it violated the rights of gays and lesbians to
marry the partner of their choice and discriminated on the basis of sexual
orientation — by a narrow vote of 4-3. While the ruling will determine the
fate of same-sex marriage in the State of California it will also determine whether a
majority of the voters can amend their Constitution to take rights away from a
minority.

While today won’t be
the end of the debate…it will focus the debate and set a precedence for other
States to follow.

More to come after
the ruling is announced…