The US remains profoundly divided on social issues, perhaps more so than ever. This divide has impacted the presidential race that is in progress at the time of this article. And the Supreme Court will continue to be in sharp focus as it rules on cases related to these decisive issues in coming years. With the death of Justice Scalia, a strong conservative, the current or next president will have the opportunity to move the court profoundly to the left if he or she chooses to nominate someone from that ideological position.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor rules on cases from the left, making her a natural opponent of Justice Scalia’s. In fact, her frustration with that late conservative justice can be seen in her recent comments.
Sotomayor gave the Robert A. Stein Lecture at the University of Minnesota Law School Monday night, where she let slip the inner monologue that runs during oral argument.
“There are things he’d say on the bench, where if I had a baseball bat, I might have used it,” she told the assembly, in reference to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who reveled in the thrust and parry of the Court’s proceedings.
The next sample of her comments might surprise you, but look behind the words for the meaning as she discusses the loss of Justice Scalia from the bench.
She further explained it was important not to impute ill will to one’s adversaries. “If we’ve lost anything, it’s remembering that differences don’t stand, necessarily, on ill will,” she said. “If you keep that in mind, you can resolve almost any issue, because you can find that common ground to interact with each other.”
You can also “find that common ground” if you’re willing to compromise on principle. There is no “common ground” on issues such as abortion, at least none that makes a difference. The two sides are irreconcilably opposed. And that’s not the only issue where neither side will retreat.
For Sotomayor to claim to that it is possible to “resolve almost any issue” by finding “common ground,” is just not true. Want to find out? Ask the good justice what restrictions she would allow to be placed on abortion, and wait for the reply. Silence.
Source: The Daily Caller
Photo: Public Health Watch
