Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa asked Judge Sotomayor some pointed questions today and recieved some unfocused if not downright evasive answers. Surprise Surprise.
As you’ll surely remember Sotomayor called abortion “settled” because of previous decisions by courts. So Grassley used her own statement about “settled” law as a basis for questioning her on gay marriage.
Jim Geraghty wrote:
Grassley began by focusing on cases that deal with the definition of marriage, and asks whether a case, Baker vs. Nelson, would be considered established precedent, settling the issue. (And, I suspect, hindering efforts at gay marriage.)
Sotomayor won’t be pinned down, noting that the issue may be “impending or pending” in the courts and could come before her if she were confirmed, and doesn’t want to prejudge the case.
Grassley got a little frustrated, and suggested that she was picking and choosing where she saw established precedent and where she saw pending matters. Citing other cases she mentioned, he said, “You didn’t seem to compromise or hedge on those matters. Why are you hedging now?”
Sotomayor apologizes and says that it’s been a while since she examined that case, perhaps as long ago as law school.
So, according to Sotomayor, abortion has been settled but the issue of marriage is up for grabs.
Typical judicial activist claptrap in that everything she agrees with is settled precedent while things she doesn’t agree with are open to change.
July 16, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I have been watching some of the hearings on C-Span – and the way she evades the questions, jumps around all over the map is sickening. That alone should disqualify her. Nothing clear and concise ever comes out of her mouth. She speaks deliberately slowly to lull people into some sort of semi-slumber, is vague on purpose and when you observe her facial expressions they indicate that she relies more on her gut sense of issues than on the law. For the life of me, I don't understand what is so difficult about "…. endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, such as Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Have you noticed that esp. Democrats never seem to be able to answer simple questions with "yes" or "no"?
I guess such questions are clearly above their pay grade.
Makes you question the intelligence of these people who currently run this country.
And also makes you question the intelligence of the vast majority of people in this county who are happily asleep right now, while the right to life is being stripped away. Now it is the unborn, sick and elderly; soon it will be anybody else who rubs the establishment the wrong way….. With Hitler's defeat, eugenics never really died.
Mercy!
Mum26
July 16, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Given that several state supreme courts have affirmed so-called "gay marriage", it looks like Sotomayor is absolutely correct in her response. The case may indeed come to her, and she is saying "wait for my decision". Nothing wrong with this at all. She appears to be very smart (for a Latina, right guys?)