The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Sotomayor Says Roe Is "Settled Law" -- Why Wasn't Plessy?

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Sotomayor Says Roe Is "Settled Law" -- Why Wasn't Plessy?

By Jeffrey Lord on 7.14.09 @ 11:34AM

The business of saying something is "settled law" is, with every Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing, revealed as little more than a game. Judge Sotomayor tells America that Roe v. Wade is "settled" law.…that mystical ironclad thing called precedent. What Senator will now ask why Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision that approved racial segregation, was not "settled law" by 1954 when it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education? Brown dismantled the Supreme Court's Plessy decision, the latter a classic of Sotomayor-style judicial activism run amok with jurists who considered themselves wise white men simply ignoring the 14th Amendment.

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

Tim| 7.14.09 @ 11:44AM

Can't you just let him finish his waffle?

Megan Lott| 7.14.09 @ 1:42PM

Very astute Jeff; I wish the Senators grilling her would point this out!

Siegfried X| 7.14.09 @ 2:19PM

That's really the point, that settled law can be overturned. Saying there is CURRENTLY a right to privacy wouldn't prevent a justice from voting to overturn it in the future. Soto is also saying that in each and every decision she simply followed precedent. So the hearing is meaningless word dancing.

Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 5:59PM

Roe Is “Settled Law?” - Why Wasn’t Plessy? which was an approval of racial segregatio links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…eleven o’clock news. Enjoyable, engaging and slightly offbeat. About Roe Is “Settled Law?” - Why Wasn’t Plessy? which was an approval of racial segregation Posted at July 14, 2009 TITLE The American Spectator The business of saying something is “settled law” is, with every Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing, revealed as little more than a game. Judge Sotomayor tells…