Sonia Sotomayor is holding it down. If you haven't been watching them already, you should check out the Senate Judiciary Confirmation Hearings online. Stuart Smalley is there.
Shortly after 2 p.m. today, when the Committee and Sotomayor returned after an hour and a half break, there occurred the hearings' third outburst. At two separate occasions yesterday (including when Al Franken gave his introductory remarks) abortion protesters disrupted the hearings, yelling things like "Stop the genocide of unborn Latinos!" Despite these interruptions–which have, by the way, been condemned by both Democratic and Republican members of the committee–Sotomayor has displayed intense focus. She is an apt note-taker, an expert listener, and has a deep and vast ocean of legal knowledge. She has a detailed, fair-handed, and cautious (in a good way) answer for every question, especially the tough ones. Senator Chuck Grassley has been baiting her for about fifteen minutes now about property rights and eminent domain. She hasn't taken it. Remember, if confirmed, she will be the only sitting Supreme Court judge with actual trial experience. That experience shows.
There are those who criticize her for not talking about the substance of issues during these hearings and focusing instead on the set case law, framework, and presidents. I think that approach is perfectly acceptable, and, in fact, desirable in a Supreme Court judge. Her personal opinions and beliefs should not effect her legal opinions. And she shouldn't talk about them here.
To those who call her an "activist judge," so what? Her record doesn't show a political agenda to her decisions (even her conservative collegues maintain this). And, as one semester of Constitutional Law revealed to me a few years ago, there is an immense difference between analyzing the anthropological/philosophical nuancesof the Constitution an the Law and analyzing specific laws in practice from within the system. Sotomayor made comments about the political effects of legal decisions in the prior, academic context. They demonstrate her awareness, and activism only in terms of actively thinking about the profession she has chosen, its import and the effects it has on millions.
In short, to paraphrase Casey Affleck in Good Will Hunting, my girl's wicked smart.
