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Blogs by Robert A. Mills
JUSTICE FOR SOTOMAYOR 7.21.09
7/20/2009 8:10:17 AM
By now, the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor is about to be confirmed to a seat on the bench of the United States Supreme Court, or she has melted down to a status similar to Robert Bork in 1988, relegated to the dust bin of judicial history. My contacts in Las Vegas tell me the former is more likely, especially since the lady could well be the best thing that’s happened in Washington since November 4, 2008.
All things considered, TV coverage of the Senate Confirmation Hearings was a delight. Did we ever suspect the best summertime drama, reality-game show, sporting event would take place live from the nation’s capital, starring the most curious set of actors and m.c.’s ever assembled? And the principal wasn’t so bad either!
Here’s a thought: after the Congressional elections are over, how about we hold confirmation hearings for new members of the Senate? The Supreme Court could grill each new winner and determine if he or she is really qualified to create the laws the Court is sworn to sort out in light of the Constitution and place into practice. If any of the elected politicos fall short, toss ‘em out and bring in the runners-up.
That process could be just as ludicrous as the recent sideshow.
Only two nationally viewed and read pundits came close to reporting honestly on the Honorable Sotomayor Saga: Jon Stewart and Maureen Dowd. The former nailed it when Sen. Lindsay Graham said, “This has certainly been, if nothing else, interesting.” The comic-genius-pretend-journalist deadpanned: “Respectfully, sir, I disagree.”
Ms. Dowd, in her column, was more seriously perspicacious when she wrote “And then there’s the Supreme Court . . . which gave up its claim to rational neutrality when the justices appointed by Republican presidents — including Bush Sr. — ignored what was fair to make a sentimental choice and throw the 2000 election to W. [Bush, Jr.] Faced with that warped case of supreme empathy, no wonder Sotomayor is so eager to follow the law.”
The matter of empathy seems to have protruded from President Obama’s choice of the Honorable Sotomayor in the first place. Even so, she deliberately, with no malice aforethought, dodged the question when they tried to back her into a corner. She impassively looked Sen. Jon Kyl in the eye and said, “We apply law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts.”
Watching and listening to our irritable and often-frustrated senators’ inane inquiries and bloviated remarks, the word “etiquette” came to mind. Friends at Merriam-Webster tell me one definition of the French word "étiquette" is "ticket" or "label attached to something for identification." In 16th-century Spain, the French word was borrowed (and altered to "etiqueta") to refer to the written protocols describing orders of precedence and behavior demanded of those who appeared in court. Eventually, "etiqueta" came to be applied to the court ceremonies themselves as well as the documents that outlined the requirements for them. Interestingly, this then led to French speakers of the time attributing the second sense of "proper behavior" to their "étiquette," and in the middle of the 18th century English speakers finally adopted both the word and the second meaning from the French, something most legislators failed to exhibit. .
There’s no question that Clarence Thomas’s confirmation episodes a few years ago were, as theater, more exciting. There was Anita Hill, nymph-like, virginal, gorgeous—worthy of an on-going roll on any TV soaper with a plot no writer could concoct—facing a Goliath in the Coliseum of stately Jurisprudence before being fed to the lions.
Who won that battle? Who triumphed when all the issues were examined—and reexamined, ad infinitum? Was it the nation? Clarence Thomas? The administration? The Court? The law?
No. It was the lions. It’s a thumbs up this time.
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