Obama Picks Sotomayor for Supreme Court Slot

President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court today, but I just can't work up any outrage over the matter.

In the first place, Sotomayor is not, in fact, the most radical candidate Obama could have picked. She didn't, for example, compare pregnancy with slavery like some other Obama nominees.

But having said that, there are a few problems with the Sotomayor pick. It is disturbing to note that she thinks Latina women make better judges than white men because of their experiences. Or something like that. This line of thinking--that one cannot understand and make judgments without personal experience--is a red herring of the worst sort. I doubt if a white male judge stated that he made better decisions than Latina women because of his life experiences that we would be expected to agree with it.

But unlike some who think Republicans should Bork her, I disagree entirely. Except for some rumors that she has a high rate of being overturned on appeal (I couldn't find evidence supporting this statement), I'm not sure how or why Republicans could come out of such a fight looking better to Hispanics and not being painted as both racists and sexists.

More to the point, unless Sotomayor's "Latinas make better judges" statement is seen as disqualifying, there is no reason for Republicans to fight the appointment. Presidents have the right to nominate what ever type of judge they wish, and traditionally, Republicans have honored this prerogative (unlike Democrats who have require fealty to Roe to consider a candidate fit for the Supreme Court).

Republicans will have to wait until 2010 before they will have much of an opportunity to thwart any Obama judicial appointments, and there's no sense wasting the gunpowder before then.