As expected the Court ruled in Ricci v. DeStefano, and overturned the Second Circuit. Two great analyses as always comes from both Lyle Denniston and Tom Goldstein.
Again, I do not have a whole lot more to add to the professionals. One of the problems as Denniston points out in his analysis is that future litigation is needed to sort out the many questions left open. Many see this as either a great defeat or a great win (depending on which side of the fence you are on), but the opinion is narrow and without much guidance. While I am a minimalist myself, I am aware of the problems of such a philosophy.
On the confirmation fight, already the right has shouted that this shows that Sotomayor is not fit to serve on the Court. The opinion, as Goldstein points, carefully avoids doing anything of the like. The Justices have decided not to create a possibly most awkward situation ever in conference should the Senate confirm Sotomayor.
More importantly though, as many have pointed in the fact, Sotomayor actually has fewer reversals than Samuel Alito did as an Appeals Court judge. Rather than analyze the number of opinions overturned, perhaps the process should focus instead on her opinions and her judicial philosophy. There is a great deal of data there.
However, given the world of sound-bite politics, I do not expect much in this regard, sadly. As a result, the American people will not really get a chance to examine Sotomayor carefully. Instead we will just have yet another silly distraction, much like the comments earlier were.
No comments:
Post a Comment