Except only one Republican voted for the endorsement.
That is quite frankly embarassing. Sotomayor is a moderate judge with a whole lot of judicial experience. It speaks volumes about the GOP’s general arrogance and stubbornness that all but one Republican on the committee chose not to endorse her.
Republican critics of the judge expressed displeasure with her rulings as a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as well as with some of her public comments. The rulings and comments show that she is a judge is too “activist” and liberal and has too little commitment to the rights of gun owners, the critics complained.
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee’s leading Republican, said just before the vote that he was compelled to oppose the nomination because of the judge’s “liberal, pro-government ideology.”
In an Op-Ed article in USA Today on Monday, Mr. Sessions wrote: “I don’t believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism. She has evoked its mantra too often. As someone who cares deeply about our great heritage of law, I must withhold my consent.”
Sotomayor is anything but an “activist” judge. I’m skeptical of that term generally, but I would think that an “activist” judge is one who often fails to defer to precedent; Sotomayor is precisely the opposite.
These senators voted against her endorsement because they don’t like her views. They could at least be honest about that.