By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

Let the games begin

President Obama will reportedly nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Although none of the candidates on his short list has a reputation for being a liberal fire-breather, Sotomayor is probably the most provocative given her ruling in a high-profile affirmative action case in New Haven.

A ruling Sotomayor made in 1995 ended the eight-month-long major-league baseball strike. So she sounds like a fine choice to me.

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11 Comments

  1. tvoh

    “A ruling Sotomayor made in 1995 ended the eight-month-long major-league baseball strike. So she sounds like a fine choice to me.”In depth commentary. C’mon, you’re for her as an ideologue.

  2. lkcape

    To quote another poster here in Dan’s land of Liberal leanings:Guffaw!

  3. Dan Kennedy

    Clearly she is a George H.W. Bush left-wing radical.

  4. Peter Porcupine

    DK – Impeach Earl Warren! :~)

  5. mike_b1

    tvoh: In depth response. C’mon, you’re against her as an ideologue.Cue the right-to-whine bloc as it attempts to paint a person whom until 15 minutes ago it had never heard of as the next Stalin.Truth is, short of Rush Limbaugh it wouldn’t matter to the right-wingnuts who Obama nominated. Bitch bitch bitch whine whine whine.

  6. Dan Kennedy

    mike_b1: Yes indeed. In fact, I think Obama may have picked someone a bit farther to the left than he was originally inclined for the simple reason that Republicans had already signaled they were going to fight the nominee no matter who it was.And by “farther to the left,” I mean in relative terms. As the NYT noted today, none of the left’s favored candidates were on Obama’s short list.So we have someone nominated by the first President Bush and confirmed by the Republican Senate *twice* who will now be pilloried as a left-wing extremist.

  7. b.f.

    As a former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney who apparently prosecuted African-American defendants between 1979 and 1984 for violating the infamous Rockefeller drug laws (which criminalized the possession or dealing of marijuana even more heavily than previously in New York State), it's not necessarily certain that Columbia University Law School lecturer Sonia Sotomayor is that much of a left-liberal.What is certain, though, is that Sonia Sotomayor, worked between 1984 and 1991 as an associate and partner in the corporate law firm of Pavia & Harcourt—which apparently represented the special interests of French and Italian government agencies and Italian, German, Spanish and other European clients. As the Business Wire news service revealed in a May 12, 2000 article: “Pavia & Harcourt's clients include Unicredito Italiano, Banco di Sicilia, INVESCO Private Capital, Edelson Technology Partners, Olivetti, Fendi, Villeroy & Boch, Lavazza, Media Planning, S.A., Screenvision Cinema Network, Stagebill, Sommer Allibert, Laboratoires Arkopharma, SNPE Group, and various governmental entities of the Republics of France and Italy."Sotomayor also, coincidentally, was a member of the State of New York Mortgage Agency [Sonny Mae] board of directors–which apparently encouraged low-income tenants in New York to saddle themselves with "low-interest" mortgages and become "first-time homebuyers" instead of fighting for stronger local rent control laws.

  8. Dan Kennedy

    Correction: Nominated by Bush the first time, Clinton the second time (in 1998), and was then confirmed by a vote of 67-29.

  9. tvoh

    Ah well, Mike, you wouldn’t be so angry if you had the wisdom of a Latina law babe.

  10. mike_b1

    tvoh, if you think Sotomayor is a babe, you have many, many more problems beyond being a Republicanazi.

  11. greg

    While of course Ms. Sotomayor will be a great justice, and her opponents are mostly Huckabee-calling-all-latinos-Maria style racists, I just want to represent all those people googling "Sotomayor is a babe" and say that oh, yes, she is.

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