 |
This week the Senate is being called upon to do its Constitutional duty and consider a nomination to the Supreme Court. Positions on the Supreme Court are hugely significant given their lifetime tenures and the impact of the Court's decisions on the lives of all Americans. Our votes on Supreme Court nominees are among the most significant that we cast.
This will be the twelfth Supreme Court nomination on which I will have voted. Each time, I have reviewed the nominee's qualifications, temperament and background to determine if the nominee is likely to bring to the court an ideology that distorts his or her legal judgment or brings into question his or her open-mindedness.
I believe that Judge Sotomayor satisfies the essential requirements of open mindedness and judicial temperament, and that her decisions as a judge fall well within the mainstream of our jurisprudence. I look forward to voting for her confirmation to our highest court.
In her 30-year legal career, Judge Sotomayor has been a Federal circuit and trial court judge, a civil commercial litigator in private practice, and a state prosecutor. She served as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney's Office and later worked in private practice.
Judge Sotomayor's judicial career has received bipartisan support. She was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 1992 to be a District Judge on the Southern District of New York. President Bill Clinton later nominated Judge Sotomayor to be a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Senate confirmed her nomination by a vote of 67-29 in 1998.
On May 26, 2009, President Obama nominated Judge Sotomayor to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to fill the seat left vacant by the departure of Justice David Souter.
Recently, the American Bar Association Standing Committee evaluated Judge Sotomayor and gave her their highest rating, unanimously rating her "well qualified."
Some Senators have expressed concern over the differences in language and ideas that they observed in Judge Sotomayor while sitting as a judge in the courtroom, and as a citizen outside of the courtroom.
We want our judges to leave their personal views outside of the courtroom. That is the essence of an impartial judiciary. In other words, Judge Sotomayor has demonstrated the trait she is accused by some of lacking: the ability to leave her personal opinions at the courthouse door. That is the opposite of an activist jurist imposing her views despite the law.
We all have personal views and sympathies. Some judges regrettably can't lay those aside. Judge Sotomayor has proven in her judicial career that she can, while faithfully applying the principles of the United States Constitution.
For these reasons, I will vote to confirm Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court this week.
Best wishes,
Carl Levin
No comments:
Post a Comment