Amid all the partisan sound bites about the nomination of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court, this much seems evident:
*She is eminently qualified and has a compelling, indeed inspiring, life story.
*She is left of center but hardly far left of center. The Wall Street Journal finds her mainstream. She’s not an ideological game-changer. She was first nominated to the bench by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush.
*She has a couple of quotes she would dearly love to have back, but – in context – she is obviously nobody’s quota queen or token ethnic.
*It will be awkward – at best – when (this summer) the Supreme Court hears the high-profile, New Haven firefighters’ (Ricci vs. DeStefano) reverse-discrimination case and likely overturns a ruling she supported on the 2nd Circuit.
*The Republicans won’t filibuster her nomination. But they’ll scrutinize her “Latina woman” empathy and imply a predisposition to bias. Ultimately, a Judiciary Committee Democrat will rein them in with a verbatim reminder about Justice Samuel Alito’s testimony that referenced his unique Italian roots. To wit: “When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that in account.”
*The Republicans will go hard at her decision on Ricci – and rightfully so. It wasn’t her finest hour.
*Not withstanding whatever Rush or Newt might say, this won’t be a Bork or even an Obama (who, as a senator, voted against both John Roberts and Alito) pay-back. Certainly not for a minority party that can ill afford to marginalize itself further in the eyes of Hispanic voters. A party whose 2008 presidential candidate won less than a third of the Latino vote.
*And then Sonia Sotomayor will make history by being confirmed as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.