Highlights from Day 3 of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings.
Republicans really don’t want the support of Hispanics. A Republican group, the Committee for Justice, released an ad comparing a Puerto Rican group to al Qaeda. Orrin Hatch attended a fundraiser for this group on Sunday, but is now distancing himself from the ad.
New Haven fireman Frank Ricci got caught fluffing his resume. I’ll have to admit to a great amount of curiosity about Ricci’s testimony. What will he add? He’s not a legal expert, so is he there to tell everyone how sad he was when the Appeals Court ruled against him?
Sotomayor tells Cornyn that her “wise Latina” remarks aren’t so different than Alito’s. (Good job calling on the double standard.)
Two weeks ago, Alito cast the deciding vote in Ricci v. DeStefano, an intensely contested affirmative action case. He did so by ruling in favor of the Italian-American firefighters, finding that they were unlawfully discriminated against, even though the district court judge who heard all the evidence and the three-judge appellate panel ruled against them and dismissed their case. Notably, the majority Supreme Court opinion Alito joined (.pdf) began by highlighting not the relevant legal doctrine, but rather, the emotional factors that made the Italian-American-plaintiffs empathetic.
Did Alito’s Italian-American ethnic background cause him to cast his vote in favor of the Italian-American plaintiffs? Has anyone raised that question? Given that he himself said that he “do[es] take that into account” — and given that Sonia Sotomayor spent 6 straight hours today being accused by GOP Senators and Fox News commentators of allowing her Puerto Rican heritage to lead her to discriminate against white litigants — why isn’t that question being asked about Alito’s vote in Ricci?
Senator Franken and soon-to-be Justice Sotomayor share a love of Perry Mason.