President Barack Obama on Tuesday named federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor as his choice for a Supreme Court vacancy.
I have a few thoughts about this. I can't say that I know much at all about Sonia Sotomayor, because I don't. But I do have an opinion. First, A Supreme Court Justice should be someone who strictly interprets the US Constitution. Based on her most recent case, she does not appear to rule by the Constitution. In her recent decision in the Ricci v. DeStefano case, which is currently in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, she decided against the firefighters.
Here is George Will's explanation of the case:
In 2003, the city [of New Haven, Connecticut] gave promotion exams--prepared by a firm specializing in employment tests, and approved, as federal law requires, by independent experts--to 118 candidates, 27 of them black. None of the blacks did well enough to qualify for the 15 immediately available promotions. After a rabble-rousing minister with close ties to the mayor disrupted meetings and warned of dire political consequences if the city promoted persons from the list generated by the exams, the city said: No one will be promoted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042402305.html
Discarding a test because no minorities would have been promoted violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination because of race.
Discrimination based on race, color, gender or religious belief is wrong no matter who the discrimination is against.
Sotomayor voted against the Firefighters and thus, shows that (at least in this case), she ruled according to her beliefs and not according to the Constitution.
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