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Happy Saturday! Welcome to a bonus post of SHERO.
Last night, the Supreme Court set a scary precedent by allowing a wealth test for green card applicants put forward by the Trump administration to take effect. Although this ruling granted the Trump administration’s request for a stay that will allow the wealth test to go into effect, the appeals court will now take up the issue for a ruling. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent that history will prove should have been the majority opinion. She essentially accused the Trump administration of using the Supreme Court to do Trump’s dirty work by bypassing the appeals process. She also accused her colleagues of showing prejudice by letting him do it.
(Kerry Washington and Justice Sonia Sotomayor speak and answer some questions from the audience concerning the power of reading at Hostos Community College on January 25, 2019 in New York City. Photo by Anthony DelMundo/Getty Images.)
Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, “Today’s decision follows a now-familiar pattern. The Government seeks emergency relief from this Court, asking it to grant a stay where two lower courts have not. The Government insists—even though review in a court of appeals is imminent—that it will suffer irreparable harm if this Court does not grant a stay. And the Court yields.”
Justice Sotomayor went on to describe the actions of the Trump administration in abusing its access to the Supreme Court: “They upend the normal appellate process, putting a thumb on the scale in favor of the party that won a stay…They demand extensive time and resources when the Court’s intervention may well be unnecessary—particularly when, as here, a court of appeals is poised to decide the issue for itself.” Sotomayor went on to indirectly allude to Trump himself by saying, “the Court’s recent behavior on stay applications has benefited one litigant over all others.”
But Justice Sotomayor’s highest criticism seemed reserved for her colleagues when she concluded with the following sentence: “I fear that this disparity in treatment erodes the fair and balanced decision making process that this Court must strive to protect.”
You can read Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s entire dissent in Wolf v. Cook County here.
In honor of Justice Sotomayor’s courageous and honest assessment of the abuse of power the Trump administration continues to enjoy elsewhere but particularly in the courts, I have decided to publish this old OpEd I wrote about her nomination in 2009. The reasons I admired her in my piece seem particularly relevant to the events we face now and her willingness to stand up for what’s right is something I expected and am grateful to see today. This is a reminder that while it feels that so many are abusing the government and taking advantage, many more are working hard to call it out and to put an end to it.
“Judge Sotomayor: A Qualified Supreme Court Nominee” (from May 2009)
With the wake of Harriet Myers and Sarah Palin still slightly shaking the waters, the latest announcement of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the next Supreme Court Nominee is a long time coming. Not because she is considered to be a candidate who fits the ultra-liberal agenda and happens to meet several quotas that many American people are desperate to see filled, but because she is qualified. That’s right: qualified. The past eight years has almost suffocated that concept from our consciousness, as we have been shown that the sacrificial candidates that were put out for us to dismantle were just that….sacrifices.
There has been a mistaken premise that has been allowed to fester for too long that the only women who were brought forth to serve in our time were incompetent. Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way attempting to discriminate against gender, as we clearly witnessed many men who were ineffective in their roles as well. I am genuinely refreshed at the notion that a qualified woman is named now as a fearless gesture to show that we have moved past the times of placating an ignorant public that does not know how to discern a woman from a smart woman. This nominee is more than a political statement, she is an acknowledgement that the women in this country demand a caliber of quality that has now resurfaced at the most critical time.
Indeed, Judge Sotomayor is not new to this vetting process as she was confirmed by seven of the U.S. Senate's current Republicans for the Appeals Court in 1998. Beginning in 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Sotomayor to be a federal district judge in the Southern District of New York. When she was confirmed in August of 1992, she became the first Hispanic federal judge in the state of New York.
In 1997, President Bill Clinton nominated Sotomayor to become a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in New York. It took the Senate more than a year to confirm her. Republicans delayed a vote, drawing an accusation from Sen. Patrick Leahy, who is now the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, possibly because they feared that Clinton would try to elevate her to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, it was Senator D'Amato, then a Republican senator from New York, who helped push through a vote, and she was confirmed 67-29 in October 1998.
So this looks interesting. Here we have a smart woman with a commanding background professionally that is nominated by a Republican president. Was this a forgotten time of bi-partisanship that was lost after the election of 2000, or was it just easier then to see talent? The drawn out process of her confirmation in 1997-8 sounds more like what we are used to dealing with: opposition to a possible strong liberal viewpoint in a minority woman.
So far nothing really scary is being said about this judge. In fact, what is scary is how candid her supporters are. I am hearing phrases like “real-world” and “sense of conscience about social justice”. Wait. She is a woman. We don’t say those things typically, because in the past those phrases translated to “weak”.
Moreover, Judge Sotomayor described her first experiences in the Ivy League as terrifying. She barely raised her hand in class initially, and years later, she confessed to a friend at Yale Law School that she could "barely write" when she arrived at Princeton. This new freedom to discuss our personal and professional fears both in life and in the academic world are a new concept to me, as a woman. I have never before witnessed the discussion of a woman’s struggles in a way that did not seek to undermine her abilities in our modern time. Sure, we have reflected on women’s struggles in our past history with admiration after the fact. But in this new time of feminist confusion, I have never been so proud to say that I can relate.
Although many on both sides of the aisle are saying that we do not know where she stands on critical issues such as the right to choose, gay marriage, and the death penalty, I think it is safe to say that we have a good idea about what she thinks. Regardless of her confirmation, I am proud to say that we have finally elevated our standards by having a candidate as accomplished and complex as Judge Sotomayor. As for the burgeoning awareness that the bench is deep for the ladies…that is all I could ask.
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Amee Vanderpool writes the “Shero” Newsletter and is an attorney, contributor to Playboy Magazine and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
I have so much respect for Justice Sotomayor.
The article, though, leaves me with a feeling of dread. Dreading if Rump will get the chance to choose 1, or even, 2 more justices. All semblance of justice will be gone.
all hail justice Soto!!!