The Supreme Battle For Liberty

In light of the new Supreme Court nomination, and particularly the article I linked to yesterday about the new leftist judicial theory of "democratic constitutionalism," I thought I should re-publish an article I wrote in September 2005 (later published in the print issue of TIA) during the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice Roberts.

This article covers some important issues about the role of the Supreme Court and the proper judicial philosophy that ought to ought to guide nominations to the Court. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I thought I should simply re-publish this article as a guide to the issues to look for in evaluating President Obama's nominee. Below is part 1, and tomorrow I will send our part 2, along with a few links on the history and legal philosophy of Judge Sotomayor.

Editor's Note: Here is the second part of the article I began in yesterday's edition of TIA Daily. This was originally written in September 2005 (and subsequently published in the print issue of TIA) during the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice Roberts.

This article provides the theory for how (and how not) to judge a nominee to the Supreme Court. As to the specifics about President Obama's new nominee, here is a good start. The New York Times provides a factual overview of Sotomayor's significant rulings. Over at RealClearPolitics, David Paul Kuhn has a very good article on the most significant of those rulings—one which, on its own, ought to disqualify Sotomayor for the bench.—RWT