Sotomayor nominated to Supreme Court

So President Obama picked his first Supreme Court justice today – Sonia Sotomayor. You’d have thought he’d called angels from heaven listening to the media.

As soon as the nomination was announced, Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News beclowned himself and announced that she wasn’t the first Hispanic judge on the Supreme Court – he named Benjamin Cordozo as the first. Cordozo was Jewish and about 5th generation Portuguese, so I don’t think that counts, Judge.

But, reading the Washington Times, I found this jaw-droppingly ignorant line from our President;

The president said he wanted a nominee with intellectual rigor and an appreciation for the limits of judicial power — “a judge’s job is to interpret, not make law.” But he said it was Ms. Sotomayor’s “own extraordinary journey” from the housing projects of the South Bronx that he thinks will give her the “common touch” he wanted in a justice.

While I’ll agree a judge should interpret and not write law, how does a “common touch” help her interpret law? The law is what it is, it’s words on paper and a judge has to be able to read. A common touch doesn’t help her read – a common touch helps her to write new law that never existed before she applied her common touch to it. Why do we bother sending people to law school if when they become judges they rule according to their background and upbringing instead of their studies?

On a related note, the California Supreme Court ruled to uphold the gay marriage ban. Imagine that. A US court determined that it’s OK for people to change their constitutions. How do you think Sotomayor’s “common touch” would have affected her vote?

Category: Legal, Liberals suck