Legal News

Guest Perspective on Sotomayor: A Small Victory for the Rule of Law

By Jennifer Forsyth

Editor’s Note: The third in our series of reviews on Sonia Sotomayor’s performance comes from Tom Dupree, a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, who worked in the Justice Department under George W. Bush.

Sonia Sotomayor did not suffer a complete meltdown. That was the less-than-demanding standard established early on in the confirmation hearing by Senator Lindsey Graham, who predicted that absent a “complete meltdown,” Judge Sotomayor would take a seat on the Supreme Court. Senator Graham hails from South Carolina — a state whose governor has provided the world with the Chernobyl of public meltdowns — so he knows a meltdown when he sees one, and Judge Sotomayor did not come anywhere close.

Judge Sotomayor did exactly what she needed to do. She said nothing intemperate; she deftly, if disappointingly, maneuvered around questions she could not or did not wish to answer; and she maintained throughout the hearing a tone that was calm, respectful and balanced.

The claim that she is a terror on the bench was never the Republicans’ strongest line of attack. I have argued five appeals before Judge Sotomayor and found her questions direct, candid, and often forceful — yet fair. And even if her style offended some lawyers, so what? Any lawyer who can’t handle a judge’s aggressive questioning should quit whining and find a new line of work.

Of greater concern were her speeches and articles outside the courtroom that raised questions as to her understanding of a judge’s proper role. During the hearing — and much to her credit — she distanced herself from President Obama’s vision of judges guided by empathy rather than the law. Likewise, she properly repudiated any suggestion that judges of a particular race or ethnicity have a monopoly on wisdom and insight. In today’s Washington, where confirmation hearings too often elevate spectacle over substance, these are small but significant victories for the rule of law.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 16, 2009 (boomark / email).