Posted by
Scott Fuller on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 7:00:00 AM
An apparent contradiction in Sonia Sotomayor's testimony yesterday during a great line of questioning from Sen. Lindsey Graham...
Graham asked Sotomayor if she subscribed to the philosophy of 'legal realism' (a collection of thought which argues for greater latitude for judges in decisions, arguing that the law is an imperfect system created by imperfect people), to which Sotomayor answered flatly: "No."
This must be news to the Obama administration and those involved in the Sotomayor vetting process, because a legal adviser to President Obama invoked a leading proponent of the legal realism philosophy -- the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. -- in defending controversial remarks of Sotomayor in May:
Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Harvard law professor and an adviser to Mr. Obama, said Judge Sotomayor’s remarks were appropriate. Professor Ogletree said it was “obvious that people’s life experiences will inform their judgments in life as lawyers and judges” because law is more than “a technical exercise,” citing Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s famous aphorism: “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”
That Sotomayor disagrees with the legal realism concept becomes especially hard to believe when Obama's own words are examined regarding the judicial philosophy he was looking for in a nominee.
In his remarks announcing the Sotomayor nomination (with Sotomayor standing next to him) Obama said on May 26:
... While there are many qualities that I admire in judges across the spectrum of judicial philosophy, and that I seek in my own nominee, there are few that stand out that I just want to mention.
First and foremost is a rigorous intellect -- a mastery of the law, an ability to hone in on the key issues and provide clear answers to complex legal questions. Second is a recognition of the limits of the judicial role, an understanding that a judge's job is to interpret, not make, law; to approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda...
These two qualities are essential, I believe, for anyone who would sit on our nation's highest court. And yet, these qualities alone are insufficient. We need something more. For as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience."...
Given that Obama has said such he was looking for that 'something more,' it stands to that Sotomayor may have been less-than-forthcoming in her response to Sen. Graham's question yesterday.