What Would You Have Asked Sotomayor at her Hearing?
Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been center stage this week (perhaps you’ve caught our confirmation hearings coverage). On the day before the hearings, the New York Times asked some legal names—from former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (now a poli sci professor at Texas Tech University) to University of Wisconsin law professor and blogger Ann Althouse—what questions they wanted to ask Sotomayor.
From Gonzales: “Do you believe there is a difference between doing justice and applying the law?”
From Althouse: “When you said you hoped that ‘a wise Latina’ would make better judicial decisions, did you mean it as a pleasantry aimed at people who had invited you to speak about diversity or will you now defend the idea that decision-making on the Supreme Court is enhanced by an array of justices representing different backgrounds?”
At this point, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have had a go, and they have asked her about her reasoning in both Ricci v. DeStefano and Maloney v. Cuomo, whether she thinks she has “a temperament problem” and, of course, about the “wise Latina” remark.
And now we want to hear from you. What would you have asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge? Or what do you think has been a particularly good question put to her so far?
Answer in the comments below.
Read answers to last week’s question: Do You Expect to Learn Anything from the Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings?
Featured answer:
Posted by Bill:: “I wonder if the Senators will drone on for 10 minutes without actually asking any questions, like they did for Roberts and Alito. Chuck Schumer loves nothing so much as the sound of his own voice. At least we won’t have to listen to Biden going on and on and on and lecturing the nominee.
“Answer to the question ‘do you expect to learn anything?’ Not really.”
