Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic asks around about the
Second Circuit judge, often mentioned as a potential Supreme
Court nominee, and
doesn't like what he hears:
But despite the praise from some of her former clerks, and warm
words from some of her Second Circuit colleagues, there are
also many reservations about Sotomayor. Over the past few
weeks, I've been talking to a range of people who have worked
with her, nearly all of them former law clerks for other judges
on the Second Circuit or former federal prosecutors in New
York. Most are Democrats and all of them want President Obama
to appoint a judicial star of the highest intellectual caliber
who has the potential to change the direction of the court.
Nearly all of them acknowledged that Sotomayor is a presumptive
front-runner, but nearly none of them raved about her. They
expressed questions about her temperament, her judicial
craftsmanship, and most of all, her ability to provide an
intellectual counterweight to the conservative justices, as
well as a clear liberal alternative.
The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an
able lawyer, was "not that smart and kind of a bully on the
bench," as one former Second Circuit clerk for another judge
put it. "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is
domineering during oral arguments, but her questions aren't
penetrating and don't get to the heart of the issue."
Sounds like a jurist we could spend decades hating -- or laughing
at.
