Sotomayor's Record Contradicts Conservatives' Claims Of Radicalism, Washington Post Columnist Writes

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 05 Jun 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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"If Sonia Sotomayor is a radical activist eager to push the law leftward or to rule according to personal whims rather than constitutional commands, she's done an impressive job of hiding it all these years," Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus writes, adding that the "amazing thing about the case against Sotomayor is how thin it is." She writes, "If Sotomayor is the judicial radical of conservative imaginings, certainly there ought to be something more in her paper trail."

Marcus continues that an "examination of Sotomayor's decisions shows a careful judge who tends to rule for the government over criminal defendants; who has been skeptical of most civil rights claims that have come before her; and who, to the extent that she has ruled on cases that touch on abortion, has come down against the abortion-rights side." According to Marcus, Sotomayor is "not apt to be David Souter in reverse -- a Democratic pick who turns out to be a close conservative." However, there also is "no evidence that she will be outside the liberal mainstream on the current court," Marcus writes. Marcus notes that Sotomayor "has ruled in favor of abortion protesters who claimed police used excessive force in removing them from outside a clinic," and she "refused to overturn the federal policy barring international family planning funds to organizations that perform or promote abortion," known as the "global gag rule." Marcus concludes, "Perhaps Sotomayor the radical has been biding her time, awaiting the day when the freedom of a Supreme Court seat would liberate her from precedent and moderation," but "the record suggests" that outcome is "unlikely" (Marcus, Washington Post, 6/3).

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