Free Republic

Sonia Sotomayor has to be the wisest Latina in the room at the Senate Supreme Court Judicial Confirmation Hearings because the redaction of her original statement was so patently false that only stupid white men and women would believe her new explanation. Speaking of stupid white men and women see for yourself (see 1:12min video) According to Sotomayor now, what she really meant was only intended to inspire young Latinas before you imbeciles misunderstood her words "I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than...

I could not approach being nearly as eloquent as Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman in an on-line debate over at the Federalist Society.Believe me, this guy is as liberal as they come. He not only defended SS's statements about being empathetic and being a wise Latina but also the irrelevancy of not being able to find a single case in which partial-birth abortion was medically necessary.But at least the guy is calling this nomination procedure like he sees it. On July 14 he wrote:"...I was completely disgusted by Judge Sotomayor's testimony today. If she was not perjuring herself, she is intellectually unqualified to be on the Supreme...

Correspondents Andrew Kilberg and Alexandra Cahill are liveblogging the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor all week. Daniel May may jump in as well today. You can watch the live feed of the hearing here. Live blog below. Andrew Kilberg: Sotomayor: "The SCOTUS is also looking at its precedents... and the Court takes a new direction." She says this is because lawyers force the Court to look at it in a new way. 9:46 Andrew Kilberg: Cornyn finally jumps in to draw Sotomayor back to the question. 9:46 Alexandra Cahill: "Do you believe that judges ever change the law?" 9:50 Alexandra...

I have a question I have been pondering lately, and it is a question I would love to see just one Republican Senator ask. You see the "wise latina" quote has been spun every which way to Sunday, but there is one rhetorical which has not been asked yet. Here it is: Lets imagine it 2006 and we are having the Roberts confirmation hearing and it is uncovered that he had said that "A wise white man, with the richness of his experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion" than a judge from a more mixed background."...

In calling Roe v. Wade “settled law,” Sotomayor affirmed a woman’s right to choose based on the Supreme Court’s decision. Here are a few other Supreme Court decisions that, in the past, could have equally been called “settled law”: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) – Against the backdrop of growing tension between sections of the United States, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of a slave who, having lived with his master in a free state for a period of time, wished to be considered a free man. The Supreme Court heard the case and ruled against the enslaved...

Her appointment could further shrink the property rights of homeowners and small businesses, says law professor Ilya Somin in an editorial. Somin says that Sotomayor takes the Supreme Court's controversial 5-to-4 Kelo decision, which allowed homes to be seized for the benefit of developers, and expands it beyond even what the Supreme Court intended:

July 14, 2009 Fred Thompson: Judicial Hearings a Waste of Time Former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson explains why he believes that the Senate confirmation hearings are largely a waste of time. He believes they are only used to try and get the nominees to commit gaffes.

" ... Franken told Sotomayor that she was "the most experienced Supreme Court nominee in 100 years." He said her story is inspirational and one in which "all Americans should take great pride in ..."

WASHINGTON -- Opponents of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court suggested they would consider it a victory if more than half of the Senate's 40 Republicans voted against her in this week's confirmation hearing, as the GOP grapples with how aggressively to challenge the nominee. Many Republicans said they viewed 23 "no" votes as a benchmark, because that would be one more than Chief Justice John Roberts received in 2005 and would reflect a significant protest vote. Others said that if the Senate GOP were to split roughly in half, that would signal support to conservatives who oppose...

On her most recent program, leftist MSNBC host Rachel Maddow summed up all conservative and Republican opposition to Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination for Supreme Court Justice as nothing more than a “campaign” that “is substantially about race.” “Thus far,” Maddow sneered, “Republicans have attacked [Sotomayor's] ‘Wise Latina’ comment, they have called her an affirmative action nominee, [and] they have singled out her ruling in an affirmative-action discrimination case.” And for good measure, added Maddow, “[t]hey have chosen to inveigh against [Sotomayor's] work for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.”

No doubt the liberal Journo List of bloggers, reporters, and columnists thought this up. It's just their speed - smearing a private citizen who gets in the way of their agenda. In this case, the victim is firefighter Frank Ricci from New Haven, CT who sued after he was denied promotion when test results were thrown out because no minority fire fighter passed. This case was going to be a prime topic of testimony during the upcoming Sotomayor confirmation hearings and the liberals want to make sure that Ricci can't damage the far left judge's chances.

So the Sotomayor confirmation hearings begin and we now get to see if the Republicans will just roll over and wag their tail, as they have proven to do over the years, or actually grow a pair and take her and her racist beliefs head on. Technically it won't matter, since she has the votes anyway, but during the tenor of the last Democrat President we got Ginsburg and Breyer. Two horrible, ultra-liberal, justices and how many Republicans voted no on them? 3 and 9 respectively. With Sotomayor there is no reason for any Republican to vote yes on someone...

Here is video from the NAACP Convention this weekend where they issued a warning to Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions that he should "tone down his rhetoric" about Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whose confirmation hearings begin today. Sessions is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will have opportunity to question Sotomayor. The NAACP essentially told Sessions "we are watching you," and are seeking to cow him into silence. It won't work. Jeff Sessions is a man of tremendous character and integrity. He won't be intimidated by the radical NAACP, an organization with a proud history, but one that...

The leading Judiciary Committee Republican is charging that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is "out of the mainstream" of legal thinking and has a very activist judicial profile. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama made the assertion just hours before Sotomayor, who would be the third woman to join the court, was to face her initial confirmation hearing.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor got a boost on Tuesday in what is expected to be a relatively easy road to Senate confirmation when an influential U.S. lawyer's group gave her its top rating. The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary based its unanimous "well qualified" evaluation on a review of the integrity, competence and judicial temperament of Sotomayor, a federal judge for 17 years who seems headed to become the first Hispanic on the highest U.S. court. "When the Judiciary Committee hearings to consider this nomination begin next week, Americans will hear from Judge Sotomayor herself,...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2009 – The Senate confirmed Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal yesterday to receive his fourth star and serve as commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. The Senate also confirmed Navy Adm. James Stavridis as commander of U.S. European Command and supreme allied commander for Europe, NATO’s top military post. Air Force Lt. Gen. Douglas M. Fraser was confirmed for promotion to general and to take the post Stavridis will vacate as commander of U.S. Southern Command. All three nominations were confirmed unanimously. McChrystal will succeed Army Gen. David D. McKiernan as...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy announced Tuesday that confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will convene on July 13, considerably earlier than Republicans wanted. Leahy said the date presents a "fair and adequate" schedule that would give members of the committee several more weeks to prepare. President Barack Obama has urged the Senate to vote on confirming Sotomayor to the high court before it leaves for a congressional recess in August. Republicans have pressed for more time to consider the nomination.,p> But Leahy, D-Vt., said there was "no reason to unduly delay consideration of this well-qualified nominee....

...We don't know what the exact grade was, as far as I've seen, but an award-winning history professor -- K.C. Johnson of Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center -- who read it at my request concluded that "the thesis would probably receive an A/A minus or an A minus." (Johnson and I co-authored a 2007 book on the Duke lacrosse rape fraud.) Here is Johnson's detailed assessment: There are also a few jarring elements that contrast to the pedagogical approach. First, I'm curious as to when Sotomayor ceased being a Puerto Rican nationalist who favors independence -- as she says...

In 2001, Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, now a nominee of President Barack Obama for the U.S. Supreme Court, delivered a lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, -- the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture. Entitled "A Latina Judge's Voice", it included the now notorious statement I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life. Many have already reacted to this statement, condemning what they perceive as manifest racism, or explaining it as...

Leahy: No worries, Sotomayor told me she’d follow the law posted at 4:25 pm on June 2, 2009 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | Share on Facebook | printer-friendly Small comfort that she’s unwilling to admit outright she’ll be applying The One’s “empathy” standard in close cases. Even those who profess a belief in forms of racial superiority have a limit to what they’ll say publicly, I guess. As for whether The One was correct in insisting that she misspoke when she made her “wise Latina” comment or whether, as anyone who’s thought about it for five seconds would...

Some amused -- OK, irritated and amused -- Republicans on Capitol Hill are sending around a line from the President's radio address today. "What I hope is that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this process, and Congress, in the past," Obama said. Political posturing and ideological brinksmanship? "Anyone know to whom this line was referring?" asks a GOP aide. "Maybe someone involved in the debate on the last Supreme Court nomination? Maybe this?" The "this" that followed was a quote from Sen. Barack Obama on the Samuel Alito nomination. "I will be...

Kenny Rogers’ classic Country hit, “The Gambler,” advises that “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run.” Good advice in both poker and politics. Anyone inclined to gamble a political future on opposing Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination should take heed: this round is one of those times when you’ve got to know when to fold ‘em. Barring the discovery of a major skeleton in her closet, Sotomayor has a lock on the Supreme Court seat.

1. Many legal experts say that the nominations process is a wholly political question and not a question that would ever come before the Supreme Court. Would you agree that a U.S. senator can vote for or against a nominee to the Supreme Court for any reason? 2. Nominees frequently come before the Senate Judiciary Committee and treat the committee questioning of a nominee as a test of how much the nominee knows about the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent. Would you agree that the nomination process should be more than the functional equivalent of a pass fail examination on...

While popular speculation held that President Obama's first Supreme Court vacancies would arise in the seats of two of the most liberal Associate Justices (the nearly post-octogenarian John Paul Stevens and the frail Ruth Bader Ginsburg), it turns out that Associate Justice David Souter (pictured left), a slightly younger liberal member of the Court, is the one providing President Obama with his first nomination opportunity. With Senator Arlen Specter's recent defection to the Democratic Party (Did the wiley Specter possess a bit of insider info about this impending vacancy? He will certainly bask in the limelight of leading from the...

The Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas CONFIRMATION The second Sacrament is Confirmation. The matter of this Sacrament is chrism made from oil, which signifies the bright lustre of conscience, and from balsam, which signifies the odor of a good name; both of which are blessed by the bishop. The form of this Sacrament is: "I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."[18] The minister of this Sacrament is solely the bishop.[19] It is...

If the issue weren’t so serious for our nation, the irony would be delicious. Eric Holder, President Obama’s choice for Attorney General is justly criticized for many things. But the fact that he recommended that President Clinton pardon and release from prison unrepentant FALN terrorists while at nearly the same time advocating that law-abiding gun owners be imprisoned if their registration papers are not in order reveals a hard core left wing agenda. Eric Holder’s agenda is to make exercise of Second Amendment rights a minefield where an innocent misstep will land you in the penitentiary. When I testified against...

The Geithner Dilemma Last week, revelations came that Tim Geithner, President-elect Obama's appointee to become treasury secretary, had not paid Social Security or Medicare taxes for years and consequently owed $43,000 in back taxes. In the aftermath of the news, Geithner's Senate confirmation hearing was postponed, and he huddled with Senate leaders last week to explain his actions. After a delay of less than a week, the Senate Finance Committee began grilling Geithner today and, seeking to pre-but any questions about his tax snafu, the Treasury Secretary designate called the errors "avoidable" but "unintentional. That explanation seemed to satisfy the...

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Hillary Rodham Clinton will not be confirmed as secretary of state Tuesday because of a single senator's objection. Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Republican John Cornyn of Texas has indicated he will block a move to confirm Clinton by a unanimous floor vote later in the day.

Corruption Chronicles Only half of the members in the U.S. Senate committee that screens among the most important presidential cabinet nominees—Secretary of Homeland Security—bothered to show up for confirmation hearings this week and only two Republicans participated. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee senators evidently had more important things to do than assure the right candidate will head the crucial agency that keeps the nation safe from foreign threats. Only nine of the panel’s 17 members found the time to ask Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary pick—Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano—questions, making the so-called confirmation hearing somewhat laughable. This is embarrassing...

It took nearly eight-and-a-half hours, but Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) finally got under Eric Holder's skin. Specter was questioning Holder on why Holder objected to the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate alleged fundraising violations by former Vice President Al Gore during the 1990s. Holder overruled former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who is now supporting Holder's nomination, in opposing that move. Holder pointed out that career DOJ lawyers in the Public Integrity Section backed his position, which then Attorney General Janet Reno eventually adopted. Specter disagreed with that assessment, and he said that incident, along with Holder's involvement in...

The media rush to exonerate Timothy Geithner's failure to pay his self-employment tax as an "innocent mistake" (in Obama's words) ignores a crucial fact: even after he knew of his liability thanks to an IRS audit, he failed to pay taxes on years covered by the statute of limitations. Additionally, his failure to pay in the first place flies in the face of the fact that his employer, the IMF, notified him regularly of his obligation, and even paid him half of the tax liability, in lieu of the employer's share, money which he kept for himself.

Secretary of State nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found. The overlap of names on former President Bill Clinton's foundation donor list and business interests whose issues she championed raise new questions about potential ethics conflicts between her official actions and her husband's fundraising.

QUESTIONS FOR SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON'S CONFIRMATION HEARING QUESTION 1 Senator Clinton, during the 2005 criminal trial of your campaign finance chairman, David Rosen, the FBI presented evidence that businessman Peter Paul personally donated $1.2 million to your campaign. Did he personally donate $1.2 million and, if so, why has it not ever been properly reported? QUESTION 2 Regarding the Hollywood Gala, Event 39 as it was called, you have filed four amended FEC reports. Mr. Paul is not named on any of those reports. Has Mr. Paul ever made you aware of his donations, and has he ever demanded to...

Senator Richard Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the committee that begins hearings on Jan. 13 for the nomination of Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State. I have had several phone conversations with one of Lugar's aides in the committee. He has had several emails providing information about Hillary that, miraculously, no one seemed to know. What, she filed four false FEC reports? What, her campaign finance chairman faced criminal trial in Los Angeles? What, an FBI agent presented evidence at trial that Peter Paul had personally donated $1.2 million to Hillary's campaign?...

ON THIS THREAD it was announced that Hillary's confirmation is on Jan. 13. We have 10 copies of HILLARY! UNCENSORED that have to be physically handed to the aides of the GOP Senators who will be voting in committee. We will FEDEX tomorrow. Is there a FReeper who can take delivery and hand carry them to the staffs of the Senate Foreign Relations committee for their bosses. I have spoken to a few of them. At least one may be interested in challenging Hillary. Included with the film, we have talking points and questions that need to be asked....

Saying that Confirmation has practically become a "Sacrament of Farewell", Bunbury Bishop Gerard Holohan has called for a radical reconsideration of the age and practice relating to its conferral. Addressing a meeting with the school principals of the Bunbury Diocese, Bishop Holohan said that "in every practical sense, Confirmation had become a 'Sacrament of Farewell'", a diocesan media statement says. The Bishop contrasted the gap between the practice of today and the pastoral practice of the early Church. "Most Confirmation candidates today are the children of parents who have little if anything to do with the Christian community," the diocesan...

Rockville Centre — They were not yet born — nor had their parents probably met — when the new liturgy was introduced in the 1960s, but a dozen teens and pre-teens last Sunday were happy to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in a Latin ceremony. Bishop William Murphy conferred the sacrament last Sunday at St. Agnes Cathedral here for a group of children and one adult whose families regularly attend an approved Tridentine (traditional Latin) Mass offered each Sunday at St. Matthew’s Church in Dix Hills. Bishop Murphy administered the sacrament of confirmation in the traditional Latin rite during a...

Many in the great state of Texas have a lot to say about a proposed network of toll roads and railway lines known as the Trans-Texas Corridor. The Texas Department of Transportation received more than 27,000 public comments during a three-month comment period on a proposed corridor project called the TTC-69, said TxDOT spokesman Mark Cross. Transportation officials had 47 public hearings in February and March and accepted written comments through April 18 on the environmental and social impact of the corridor. Comments ranged from flat-out opposition to the corridor to suggestions about how to lessen its impact, Cross told...

AUSTIN — Deirdre Delisi once aspired to be a diplomat, and Gov. Rick Perry may have finally granted her wish. As head of the Texas Transportation Commission, Perry's former chief of staff will test her diplomatic skills in an emotion-filled arena in which a state senator has already called her a "political hack." In an early sign of her peacemaking potential, the 35-year-old Delisi scheduled one of her first meetings as chair with that senator, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas. "I was left with the impression that she genuinely wants a new and fresh start for...

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he had appointed Deirdre Delisi, his former chief of staff, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation. As of today, I will not vote to confirm her appointment in the next legislative session. Ask almost any Texan, especially those who have the need to travel frequently on Interstate 35, about our Texas transportation system and they will tell you that many of our roads have extreme congestion, while other construction projects have experienced significant cost overruns. Last year, TxDOT notified the public that it had experienced a...

When conservatives lay out their long list of apostasies committed by John McCain, one of them is always his role in the Gang of 14, the 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans in the Senate who agreed to a judicial compromise in 2005. The deal that was struck eliminated the use of the "nuclear option" by the then-GOP-controlled Senate, and also limited the Democratic minority's ability to use the filibuster to block certain judicial nominees (at the time the deal was stuck, there were no pending Supreme Court nominations, only Appellate Court nominations were being held up). To put it plainly,...

In a sharp rebuke to the Democratic base, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed Leslie Southwick to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit after 12 Democrats, together with one Independent, shrugged off the strong opposition of their party’s leaders and joined a united Republican Conference. The vote buoyed a Senate GOP conference that has been dogged by scandals and put on the defensive over Iraq, and it marked the first of two GOP victories on the day. Shortly after Southwick was confirmed, Republicans blocked Democratic-led efforts to help children of undocumented immigrants attend college, likely...

Abstract: "The Irony of Populism: The Republican Shift and the Inevitability of American Aristocracy" analyzes the shift in the role of the Supreme Court following the movement towards a democratic Senate which culminated in the Seventeenth Amendment. The Supreme Court's shift is presented as the inevitable result of the system of mixed government that underlies the constitutional order, which orders American Government into democratic, aristocratic, and monarchical parts. While in the original conception of the constitution the Senate was the aristocratic part, the Senate would become part of the democratic part with the Seventeenth Amendment and prior procedural changes. Into...

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry's campaign Web site touts public education as a long-standing "top priority" of his, but the school year began this week with teachers and administrators still wondering who will be the next commissioner of education. That question mark is one among many with nearly 400 expired gubernatorial appointments this year alone to state boards, commissions and universities. Senators — worried that Perry is dodging their constitutional role of confirming most gubernatorial appointments — are crying foul. By Friday, 388 of Perry's appointments will have already expired so far this year, but only one in eight have...

New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a powerful member of the Democratic leadership, said Friday the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush “except in extraordinary circumstances.” “We should reverse the presumption of confirmation,” Schumer told the American Constitution Society convention in Washington. “The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito.”

This year, I will be working with 4 young adults and preparing 2 of them for the Sacrament of Confirmation. The last time I did this, that parish was using the Benziger Press books, which were way too new age. With all of your experience, I would be most appreciative to hear which texts you have used, how your students related, and you frank and honest opinions on what works best.

We have some friends whose son will be confirmed next month. He's a great kid. He'd like us to attend the confirmation, but it's invitation-only, and tickets are limited. His mom is trying to get extra tickets for us. We'd love to go. I've been asked a question by the mom about something the young man wishes to do. He'd like to ask the bishop, his parish priest, and his sponsor to autograph the Bible that he received as part of his confirmation preparation classes. His mother is concerned about the propriety of this, especially that the bishop might object....

Foot-and-mouth outbreak confirmed in N. Korea: official SEOUL, March, 8 (Yonhap) -- The global animal health body has confirmed a foot-and-mouth outbreak in North Korea and South Korea has boosted quarantine steps at the border, a Seoul official said Thursday. "The outbreak was first reported at a farm near Pyongyang on Feb. 7, affecting more than 2,000 cows and pigs," said Kim Chang-seob, the chief veterinary officer at the Agriculture Ministry. "The World Organization for Animal Health confirmed the outbreak as of Wednesday." It is the first time that the health body confirmed a foot-and-mouth case in the communist country,...

Does anybody have a link to the entire transcript of Gen. Petraeus's confirmation hearing? I'm tired of reading only the snippets that the news media wants us to hear.