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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke to the interns of the House and Senate in June of 2010. At a Q&A afterwards, she was asked multiple questions from interns on a wide variety of topics including negative law and utilitarianism, conflicts of legal views and personal views, and the Yale/Harvard situation then pending in the court. One of my former students, a senate intern, got up to ask a question and was the very last one allowed to speak. He asked her "What should American culture and society look to as the source for just laws?" Justice Sotomayor paused, looked...

First Lady Michelle Obama told two audiences at Democratic fundraising events on Tuesday that the justices her husband appointed to the Supreme Court will protect the right to “love whomever we choose.” She also said these justices would protect “privacy”—presumably a reference to the “right to privacy” the court invoked in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. “Let’s not forget what it meant when my husband appointed those two brilliant Supreme Court justices,

Former White House lawyer, David B. Rivkin, Jr. is having quite a run. On the heels of his national success planning and leading the lawsuit by 26 plaintiff states challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Rivkin is being honored as one of the best law firm writers in America. The prestigious 2011 Burton Award for Legal Achievement has been awarded to Rivkin for his Washington Post article, “Why the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy is Doomed,” which ran in the Feb. 13, 2010 edition. The article, written by Rivkin and his Baker Hostetler law colleague Lee A. Casey,...

Sparing no arrow from his rhetorical quiver, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia fired away in dissent of Monday's 6-2 ruling that puts a Michigan man back on the hook for a drug murder and casts doubt on the reach of a hallmark opinion penned by the court's longest serving member. Scalia called Monday's decision a "mistake," "patently incorrect," "incoherent" and a "gross distortion of the law." Over time, all members of the high court have been subjected to Scalia's caustic writings. This time it was Justice Sonia Sotomayor who was responsible for articulating the court's position--joined by five of her...

The bombast and bluster emanating from the office of Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana suggest that he knows he's going to have a fight on his hands to retain his seat. Lugar, current king of the RINOs in the upper chamber, is clearly unwilling to give up the perks of office, particularly the accolades slathered upon him by the beltway media. Like John McCain, Lugar simply doesn't comprehend the fact that he is lavishly praised by the mainstream press precisely to the degree he is willing to turn his back on the traditional American values of his constituents. Lugar's response...

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor drew attention to her racial politics this week during a speech at the University of Chicago Law School, where she took issue with the positions of some of her colleagues on the bench. Since her confirmation hearings, in which she had to explain her previous assertion that a wise Latina woman "would more often than not reach a better conclusion" than a white man in the same position, Justice Sotomayor has typically been more guarded in her public comments. But at the student forum, she criticized Chief Justice John Roberts's position in a 2007 case...

Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor paid a surprise visit to Rosa Parks Elementary School in West Berkeley this morning. Sotomayor is in Berkeley to judge a moot court competition at the University of California Berkeley Law School, Boalt Hall, this evening. The competition has been moved to Zellerbach Hall because of the demand for tickets. Sotomayor chose Rosa Parks because two children of law school dean Chris Edley and his wife, Maria Echaveste, attend the school, and she heard about its commitment to diversity and its Spanish language immersion program. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and...

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has set herself apart from colleagues with her fervent statements protesting the majority's refusal to take some appeals, particularly involving prisoners. Each month, the justices spurn hundreds of petitions from people who have lost in lower courts, and rarely does an individual justice go public with concern about the denial. In the seven times it has happened since the annual term opened in October, Justice Sotomayor has signed four of the opinions, more than any other justice. She was the lead author on three, again more than any other justice. She forcefully dissented when the...

At her confirmation hearings last year, Sonia Sotomayor spent a lot of time assuring senators that empathy would play no part in her work on the Supreme Court. That was a sort of rebuke to President Obama, who had said that empathy was precisely the quality that separated legal technicians like Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. from great justices. Justice Sotomayor would have none of it. “We apply law to facts,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. “We don’t apply feelings to facts.” We are now three months into Justice Sotomayor’s second term on the court. That...

Washington —For most of the last two decades, Supreme Court conservatives led by Justice Antonin Scalia dominated the debates during oral arguments. They greeted advocates for liberal causes with sharp and sometimes caustic questions, putting them on the defensive from the opening minute.But the tenor of the debate has changed in recent months, now that President Obama's two appointees to the court, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, have joined the fray and reenergized the liberal wing.Gone are the mismatches where the Scalia wing overshadowed reserved and soft-spoken liberals like now-retired

I’ve obtained a copy of an interesting letter that Harvard law professor Larry Tribe wrote to his protégé, President Barack Obama, in the immediate aftermath of Justice Souter’s announcement of his decision to retire from the Court. I will post a PDF of the letter shortly. [Update: Here’s the letter.] In the meantime, I’ll call attention, in this post and two or three others, to some of its highlights. The express purpose of Tribe’s letter is to urge that Obama nominate Elena Kagan to the Souter vacancy. But before making his affirmative case for Kagan, Tribe argues strongly against the...

Supporters welcome paroled Puerto Rican activist Humboldt Park rally welcomes former Chicago resident who served 30 years in federal prison By Oscar Avila, Tribune reporter 9:48 PM CDT, July 26, 2010 Advertisement Just hours after being paroled from federal prison Monday, Carlos Alberto Torres waded through a joyous homecoming awash with Puerto Rican flags in Humboldt Park. Once on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, Torres was released after serving 30 years of a 78-year sentence for seditious conspiracy for his role with a violent Puerto Rican nationalist movement known as the FALN. In a rally to celebrate his freedom...

Truth is trampled in the street and judgment is turned around backward. Nothing inflames people to anger like perceived or real injustice. Throw in the tinder of a deteriorating economy in which millions of people are losing their homes, and raging unemployment, and the situation can become extremely ignitable. This was the firebox that the city of Oakland found itself in last Thursday. Around 2:30 p.m., word leaked that the verdict in the Johannes Mehserle murder trial would be read at 4 p.m.—the news set off a mass exodus of residents that was just short of resembling a panic, reported...

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Elena Kagan thinks that the "Borking" of Robert Bork during his 1987 Supreme Court confirmation hearings would deserve a commemorative plate if the Franklin Mint launched a "great moments in legal history" dishware line. This isn't the time to rehearse the reasons why Kagan is wrong on that score. Still, one adverse result of the Bork hearings is worth dwelling on. Bork was the last Supreme Court nominee to give serious answers to serious questions. But because the left successfully anathematized him, no nominee since has dared show Borkian forthrightness. Consider Monday's high-court ruling: The Second Amendment right to own...

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan says she considers recent high court decisions expanding gun rights to be "settled law." Kagan was asked at her confirmation hearing about two recent decisions, including a 5-4 ruling Monday, which essentially guaranteed citizens' Second Amendment rights to have guns, no matter where they live. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California decried growing gang violence in her state, saying officials need leeway to deal with it. Kagan responded that "once a court decides a case as it did, it's binding precedent." And she said judges must respect a precedent unless it proves unworkable or new...

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a 5-4 vote that it is unconstitutional for state and local governments to completely ban citizens from owning guns. This vote opens the realm, just as Alana Kagan began her confirmation hearings yesterday, that she will say whatever is necessary for a vote of confidence. Case in point: Justice Sotomayor. During her confirmation hearings, when asked where she stood on the 2nd amendment: (video of Sotomayor during confirmation hearings, and now after 2nd amendment vote)

Second Amendment advocate and author John Lott was on Coast to Coast last night to discuss the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision recognizing the individual right of citizens to own guns but he stressed that a change in the balance of power on the court could change all that. Accordingly, he stressed the need for an informed electorate at the ballot box to ensure that only Presidents and Senators are elected who will appoint and confirm pro-Second Amendment judicial nominees. He mocked President Obama's professed commitment during his campaign to support gun rights but who then in office appointed Sotomayor to...

The Supreme Court yesterday gunned down the Windy City's attempt to undermine the Second Amendment rights of its residents. In the closely divided McDonald v. Chicago decision, the justices expanded on 2008's District of Columbia v. Heller ruling by making it clear that the right of the people to keep and bear arms applies in all 50 states, not just federal enclaves like the District. Law-abiding gun owners can find a lot to celebrate in this decision. Nonetheless, the court left a number of unsettled issues that will form the new battleground for gun rights for years to come. The...

As reported by the New York Times, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Second Amendment, just like the rest of the Bill of Rights, applies to states and municipalities as well as the Federal Government. One does not have to be a Supreme Court Justice or even a lawyer to understand this; all one needs is a basic high school education in American history and civics. ... Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer have already shown their unfitness to serve because of the infamous Kelo decision, which says municipalities can seize property through...

Supreme Court Justices are known by the company they keep, and yesterday's decisions provided a valuable window into the kind of jurisprudence President Obama favors in his nominees. In an unusual hat trick, the Justices overturned three rulings by the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals—and in each case Sonia Sotomayor was among the dissenters. Implication: A Supreme Court crafted in Justice Sotomayor's image would transform the Ninth Circuit's oft-overturned jurisprudence into the law of the land. That's worth pondering as Senators head into next week's confirmation hearings on Mr. Obama's second nominee, Elena Kagan. Among the Court's three...

St. Pete Times: Charlie Crist says he would vote to confirm Elena Kagan, but talking to the Miami Herald editorial board the other day struggled to recall specifically why he opposed Sonia Sotomayor.

SAN DIEGO — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell said Monday he would have voted to confirm one of President Barack Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees but not the other. He said he would have voted for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, but would vote against Solicitor General Elena Kagan, whom Obama nominated last week to replace the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Campbell said Kagan has insufficient experience. “Justice Sotomayor had 20 years of experience,” Campbell said at a meeting with about a dozen young professionals, mostly recent law school graduates, in the conference room of a Liberty Station law office....

ABC Features Sotomayor's Brother to Tout Salsa-loving JudgeBy Scott Whitlock Wed, 06/10/2009 - 12:17 ET "Good Morning America's" Claire Shipman on Wednesday conducted a fawning, mostly content-free interview with Supreme Court pick Sonia Sotomayor's brother about his sister's love for Salsa dancing, among other light topics. The ABC reporter asked Juan Sotomayor only one question on the substance of the nominee's comments that a "wise Latina" judge would come to a better conclusion than a white man.

When Justice Sonia Sotomayor was nominated last year for her current position on the US Supreme Court, the Obama administration put the focus squarely on her personal story. But now in the case of Elena Kagan, the president and his team are attempting to prevent the latest nominee's personal story from reaching the American public.

Of course Elena Kagan is unqualified for the job of Supreme Court justice. So what? Barack Obama isn’t remotely qualified for his job either. What is all the commotion about? If experience and intellect were relevant, we would never have gotten ourselves saddled with Sotomayor who would have been fully self actualized presiding over municipal traffic court. Kagan has had a sort of real job as Dean of Harvard Law School which means she knows a thing or two about fund raising, but nothing about the Consitution. Michelle Malkin reminds us of Kagan’s shortcomings: "-Dean Kagan has taken positions that...

WASHINGTON - US Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor has attained true stardom. This month, she joins House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Al Gore and conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh in having her own comic book. Describing the four as "some of the most fascinating and polarizing figures on the national political stage," Bluewater biography comics is publishing separate comic books on each that will be in comic book stores tomorrow. "These four individuals represent some of the most influential and historic figures of the 21st century," said Bluewater president Darren Davis in a statement. "Each has a...

DeVore campaign response to CA Pro-Life Council Endorsement of Carly Fiorina from Josh Trevino, campaign Communications Director Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the California Pro-Life Council will tomorrow endorse Carly Fiorina. I find this rather astonishing, given Fiorina's record -- or lack thereof -- on pro-life issues. It certainly does not stand to reason that the Council would endorse a candidate who has .... 1) .... no record of pro-life activism whatsoever. 2) .... affirmed her willingness to confirm pro-abortion judges. 3) .... demonstrated an ignorance of pressing pro-life issues. 4) .... publicly stated that...

Carly Fiorina outlines her anti-abortion stance Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, who has been trying to appeal to conservatives in a tough, three-way primary race, said Friday that one of the senators she admires most is a Democrat: California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. "Sen. Feinstein has been a fine senator for the state of California, and has accomplished a great deal. I would describe her as a pragmatic problem-solver," Fiorina told Chronicle reporters and editors during an interview with the newspaper's editorial board. "I admire her, I respect her. I like her. I think and I hope she would say...

"Justice Sotomayor for you on Line 1, sir." "Got it, Katie, thanks... Good morning, Sonia! I didn't expect to hear from you today, what with the blizzard and all. How's things over there at the Supreme?" "Going well, sir, except I'm the only one able to make it in today..."

Sotomayor Uses "Undocumented Immigrant" in Supreme Court Opinion; Never Happened Before From this: In an otherwise dry opinion, Justice Sotomayor did introduce one new and politically charged term into the Supreme Court lexicon. Justice Sotomayor’s opinion in the case, Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, No. 08-678, marked the first use of the term "undocumented immigrant," according to a legal database. The term "illegal immigrant" has appeared in a dozen decisions. This is a relatively minor issue, but expect things to get worse and maybe even much worse. At this point in time, it's worth looking back at those who basically took...

Federal Bench: Yet another judicial nominee seeks to impose the "empathy" standard on the courts. He thinks judges should base rulings on a plaintiff's status, legislate from the bench and amend the Constitution. Indiana federal judge David Hamilton stands poised to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assume a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals serving Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. He's a former fundraiser for Acorn and a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is also another in a series of activist judges who believe the U.S. Constitution is not...

Sonia Sotomayor heeded White House advice to paint her fingernails a neutral shade during her Supreme Court confirmation process — up to a point. At a White House reception after her confirmation, Sotomayor showed her freshly painted red nails to President Barack Obama, along with her red-and-black semi-hoop earrings, according to an article in the new issue of Latina magazine to be released Nov. 17. Obama joked that Sotomayor had been briefed on proper nail color and earring size. "Mr. President, you have no idea what you've unleashed," Sotomayor replied, according to the article by her close friend Sandra Guzman,...

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's nomination process was so controlled that the White House even approved her clothes, she told Yalies when she appeared at her 30th Yale Law School reunion on Saturday. Sotomayor described her grueling nomination process privately when she spoke to 1,800 alumni, students and faculty, the New Haven Register reports.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's nomination process was so controlled that the White House even approved her clothes, she told Yalies when she appeared at her 30th Yale Law School reunion on Saturday. Sotomayor described her grueling nomination process privately when she spoke to 1,800 alumni, students and faculty , the New Haven Register reports. State Sen. Ed Meyer attended the event and said Sotomayor became teary at times, but kept the crowd laughing. The Yale Law School grad talked about shopping for clothes to wear to her acceptance ceremony, but government officials took over the fashion decisions. They told...

“Desperate” Impact? by: Brittany Fortier, October 13, 2009 As the Supreme Court begins a new session, the Cato Institute held its 8th annual Constitution Day Conference and Supreme Court Review on September 17, 2009. This day also marked the 222nd anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, and panelists discussed whether the Supreme Court decisions of the previous year were faithful to the intentions of our Founding Fathers. Roger Clegg, President and General Counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, called the “disparate impact” approach to civil rights law used by the Court in cases such as Ricci v....

Highlights of some high-profile cases that the Supreme Court will take up in its term that begins Monday (10/5/09): _Guns: The Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms has never been held to apply to state and local laws restricting guns. The court is taking up a challenge to a handgun ban in Chicago to decide whether this right, like many others in the Bill of Rights, acts to restrict state and local laws or only federal statutes. If the court sides with gun rights supporters, lawsuits to overturn all manner of gun control laws are likely. _Animal cruelty...

Before it was known that the 2016 Olympics had been awarded to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and that Chicago had been knocked out of the selection process in the first round of voting despite President President Obama's whirlwind visit to Olympic authorities in Copenhagen, Denmark, Glenn Beck led his audience through an exercise in calculated absurdity. He asked, "What Would Sotomayor Do?" -- a reference to the new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. His point was this: what would a hardcore, race-obsessed leftist like Justice Sotomayor do if given the chance to decide which major world city should host the...

Fronting the pews at this morning's Red Mass in DC's St Matthew's Cathedral: the nation's First Catholic -- Vice-President Joe Biden -- joined by six Supreme Court Justices, including the bench's Chief John Roberts and newest member Sonia Sotomayor, both likewise of the fold. While the fulltext has yet to emerge, the wire's running a snip from the day's visiting preacher: The specialized, formal knowledge of the law "frequently becomes semi-mechanical, even distancing," [Cardinal Daniel] DiNardo [of Galveston-Houston] told the congregation. "The law and lawyers are around because justice among human beings will always be an issue." "Even sophisticated,...

Gun Control: The Supreme Court agrees to decide if the Second Amendment applies to all of us, or just Washington, D.C. Why would the Founders put in the Bill of Rights something applying only to a federal enclave? In a 5-4 decision last year written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court overturned a draconian District of Columbia gun ban enacted 32 years ago that barred private ownership of handguns at all. Scalia wrote that an individual's right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted. The court ruled that...

Just saw the tail end of the Sotomayor throwing out the pitch to Molina. I wonder if she underhanded it? Any video?

NEW YORK — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is coming off the bench — and heading to the mound at Yankee Stadium. Sotomayor, a Yankees fan from the Bronx, is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch Saturday before New York's game against Boston.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama told a Hispanic gathering on Wednesday that the proudest moment of his presidency was when Justice Sonia Sotomayor became the nation’s first Latina member of the Supreme Court.“ -SNIP- “Our own royalty, somebody who we have become so extraordinarily proud of, somebody who I’ve just come to adore, and who is somebody who’s going to make us proud for many, many years to come, because she’s not term-limited, the newest justice of the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor,” he said.-SNIP- J.Lo looked slender and stunning in a figure-hugging nude dress during the day. Later, she changed...

WASHINGTON -- In her maiden Supreme Court appearance last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a provocative comment that probed the foundations of corporate law. During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court's majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled. But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong -- and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have. Judges "created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons,"...

A legal advocacy group advised by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the 1980s actively opposed conservative Robert H. Bork's nomination to the high court calling him a "threat" to the "civil rights of the Latino community." The Senate went on to reject President Reagan's nominee in 1987. The revelation is included in 350 pages of documents the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund delivered to the senators late Tuesday evening. Judge Sotomayor worked for PRLDEF in various capacities from 1980 until she became a federal judge in 1992, spending most of her time as a board member. The...

Link to AP story on yahoo

Sotomayor takes her place on high court bench Courtroom onlookers included mother, brother, and singer Ricky Martin J. Scott Applewhite / AP The Supreme Court's newest member, Sonia Sotomayor, left, is escorted by Chief Justice John Roberts following her investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington on Tuesday. WASHINGTON - Justice Sonia Sotomayor has taken her seat at the Supreme Court in front of a packed courtroom that included President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. The ceremony Tuesday was just for show. Sotomayor and the rest of the court will return Wednesday for the argument in a...

Thank you for writing to me regarding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. I appreciate hearing from you, and I welcome the opportunity to respond. The nomination of a Supreme Court Justice requires the Senate to engage in a serious and historic debate. As a member of the Senate who also serves on the Judiciary Committee, I consider my Constitutional role to review Supreme Court nominees to be among my foremost and gravest responsibilities. Judge Sotomayor has a 17-year record as a solid, tested, and mainstream Federal judge. She...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted. The case, which arises from a minor political documentary called “Hillary: The Movie,” seemed an oddity when it was first argued in March. At issue is whether the court should overrule a 1990 decision, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates. The court’s order calling for re-argument, issued in June, has generated more than 40 friend-of-the-court briefs....

Here is video of a confrontation between LaRaza members and anti-ObamaCare protesters outside Democrat Rep. Gene Green's Town Hall Meeting in the Houston, Texas area on August 18, 2009. The video shows some of the Town Hall Meeting inside in the first couple of minutes, but then moves outside where a young LaRaza member wrapped in what appears to be a Mexican flag begins swearing at anti-ObamaCare protesters. It eventually escalates to where he begins pushing and shoving at them and is arrested by the police and carried away. The video ends showing other LaRaza activists shouting at the protesters...