Sotomayor and other issues

[tangaroa]

The U.S. Senate confirmation hearings for the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court are an example of how partisanship undermines the system of government. In theory, the Senate is supposed to review the candidate's temperament and legal record for worthiness to sit on the highest court of the land. Instead, the opposition Republican Party is looking for any weakness at all that they will then pretend is reason to oppose her nomination. If the Republicans make a big enough show out of their opposition, it can give voters the impression that the Democrats must be doing something horribly wrong and the Republicans are the only ones willing to stop them. The Democrats have responded by drawing ranks around the nomination and airing television commercials promoting it.

So far all that the Republicans have come up with against Sotomayor is the one case of Ricci v. DeStefano where she followed earlier Supreme Court precedent that the current Supreme Court overturned on a 5-4 vote, and that she once said that growing up as a racial minority might make her see situations differently from people who did not. That is all they needed to start a circus. Conventional wisdom says that Sotomayor should do as John Roberts did in 2005 and say as little as possible in order to avoid offering up any other potential fuel for the partisan fire. Intellectual exchange is impossible in this situation, few insights into the nominee's mind are opened, and the system fails to work as intended.

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Short links:

• Ed Brayton has more words on the inanity of the Sotomayor hearings.
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