Joe Biden's Political Aphasia Finally Presents Itself
A Palestinian Unwrapped a US Aid Package. It Didn't Go Well.
Netanyahu to Biden: I'm Taking Rafah, Destroying Hamas, And You Can’t Do Anything...
Nation’s Largest Corporate Mega-Stores Lobbying for Billions, Small Businesses & Consumers...
A Truth and Reality ‘Bloodbath’
CAIR Says Biden Will Lose, 'Allah Willing'
Israel As 'A Pariah' Among the Nations
Trump Romps Among Battleground Catholics
Biden's Speech Was Not the Win the Political Class Thought It Was
The Smell of Mendacity
'Bloodbath' and Pure Evil
Pathway to Victory
The Cautionary Legal Tale of Roundup
FDNY Won't Investigate Those Who Booed Letitia James, But Don't Expect Love for...
Joe Biden Is Back to Pretending His Granddaughter Doesn't Exist
Tipsheet

Sotomayor's "Life Experience"

Crosslisted at TH SCOTUS Watch

The Obama administration and the media have quickly developed a narrative concerning Sonia Sotomayor: she's a down-to-earth hardened justice who "cares about the people." The Sotomayor story is not about her being an intellectual heavyweight, or about her fully-formed legal philosophy; it is about her as a down-to-earth judge who will, like Obama, be "pragmatic" in her decisions rather than subscribe to any certain legal guidelines. Obama, in the announcement press conference, quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes in saying,

Advertisement

The life of the law is not logic, but experience, according to former justice Oliver Wendell Holmes...a understanding of how the law works.

And, of course, as Carol noted below, Sotomayor herself believes that life experience, rather than prudent judicial reasoning, should lead a judge's thought process:

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

In picking Sotomayor, Obama would like us to think that legal philosophy is subservient to life experience. This is an attempt to frame a Supreme Court nominee's qualifications not with a reference point of legal philosophy, but another misguided overreach for Obama's worldview of "pragmatism."

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement