CA – Editorial: One thumb up for Sotomayor
Of the four Republican U.S. senators who represent Tennessee and Mississippi, only one intends to vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander said last week that he will vote in favor of Sotomayor when the full Senate takes up her nomination this week.
“Even though Judge Sotomayor’s political and judicial philosophy may be different than mine, especially regarding Second Amendments rights, I will vote to confirm her because she is well qualified by experience, temperament, character and intellect,” he said.
Good for him.
Apparently those attributes aren’t good enough for Sens. Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Bob Corker of Tennessee. They all have said they will vote against Sotomayor.
Unlike Alexander, Wicker has made unbridled allegiance to gun rights a litmus test for judicial appointment. He continues to harp on the notion that Sotomayor is somehow an enemy of all law-abiding gun owners.
Cochran contends some of Sotomayor’s past statements, not her court decisions, lead him to question her “fidelity to equal justice.”
And Corker, without being specific, said he believes her record and past statements show she views the high court “as more of a policy-making body.”
It’s obvious the three senators did not believe her sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month when she said a judge’s job is not to make law, but to apply the law.
Only Alexander took the more reasoned approach, saying it would be wrong to vote against her “solely because she is not ‘on my side’ on some issues.”
It’s not as if the votes by Wicker, Cochran and Corker will be pivotal. Sotomayor is all but assured of confirmation because Democrats control 60 of the 100 votes in the Senate.
Commercial Appeal
8/3/9
