Short List of Sotomayor and 3 Others Disappointed Some Liberals
Updated: Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, expected to be nominated today to the U.S. Supreme Court, was selected from a short list of four nominees, all liberal but none of them outspoken advocates of the left.
In a story published yesterday, the New York Times said the short list consisted of federal appeals judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood, Solicitor General and former Harvard law dean Elena Kagan, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
This morning, the Times and other news organizations reported that Obama will nominate Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
Wood has been described as an incrementalist and Kagan has backed strong executive power, the Times says. In a separate story, the New York Times says important rulings limiting presidential authority have been decided by 5-4 margins, with retiring Justice Souter in the majority. As a result, the next justice could be “pivotal” in executive power rulings, the story says.
Sotomayor’s court has heard few executive branch cases, the story says.
Missing from the short list was Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan, who has worked on two new books that suggest evolving constitutional approaches promoting “affirmative rights” such as housing or health care. The Wall Street Journal reports that the books advance the theory that each generation has a duty to apply the Constitution’s ideals in its era.
“While there are clear political advantages to Mr. Obama if the perception is that he has avoided an ideological choice,” the Times says, “Ms. Karlan’s absence from his list of finalists has frustrated part of the president’s base, which hungers for a full-throated, unapologetic liberal torchbearer to counter conservatives like Justice [Antonin] Scalia.”
Other liberal favorites who didn’t make the list include another Stanford law professor, Kathleen Sullivan, and Yale law dean Harold Hongju Koh, who has been nominated to be legal adviser to the State Department, the Times says.
Updated to include the news that Sotomayor is expected to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
