WASHINGTON - Introducing Sonia Sotomayor yesterday as his first Supreme Court nominee, President Obama relished telling her up-from-poverty life story and highlighting her history-making ethnic roots. But he stressed that he picked her because of her intellect, judicial experience, and her determination "to approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda."
Obama, however, was quickly challenged by critics who contended she was picked more for her personal story - and her gender and ethnicity - than her legal credentials. They buttressed their contention by noting that she recently joined a three-judge panel that ruled unanimously against white firefighters in a case that centers on racial preferences. Critics also pointed to two speeches - one in which Sotomayor suggested that "our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions," another in which she said that judges sometimes make policy.
As a result, the Sotomayor storyline almost immediately split in two directions - a heartwarming narrative of Horatio Alger proportions to her defenders, and a cautionary tale of liberal judicial activism to her critics. While the Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to confirm her, Sotomayor's life and record nonetheless are certain to be hotly debated in the weeks to come.
"Her personal story is an impressive one," said Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law School professor who advised Obama on the nomination and attended yesterday's announcement at the White House. Tribe strongly supports Sotomayor's nomination, but he agreed that the New Haven, Conn., firefighter case is one of the most divisive facing the Supreme Court in its term ending next month "and certainly her role in it will be a subject of continuing controversy."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/05/27/cases_talks_offer_hints_to_her_views/
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