An Open Letter to Sonia SotomayorSpecial to FreeRepublicDear Sonia, May I call you Sonia? We’ve just met but I feel I’ve known you forever, because of your “compelling story.” I’m an elderly, white male who’s a lawyer. But wait, I’m not that dull and dismissible. I’ve had my “story” moments.
Remember that psychologists’ list of the ten worst things that can happen to a person? Losing your job, or house, getting divorced, going bankrupt, facing death, burying a child. You know, nasty stuff. I’ve been through almost everything on that list, some more than once. You pick yourself up and continue on as best you can. Big whoop.
Having a “story” does not qualify anyone for the Supreme Court (or other high offices). Here are some examples. There have been four men who fit the following definition: They were born in humble circumstances, far from the centers of power in their nations. They suffered many losses and defeats in their early careers. Still, each of them became the leaders of their nations at a time when their nations faced potentially fatal wars.
In alphabetical order they were, Adolf Hitler, Abraham Lincoln, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin. True, they are all dead white guys, but they were in all the papers. Like theirs, your story proves that you are persistent. But, like theirs, persistent in what purposes?
Can we chat about the Constitution for a bit? It is our “supreme Law.” Check out Article VI, paragraph 2. And why must it be either the supreme law, or a nullity? See Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 33. I presume you know a little bit about other nations’ constitutions. Of the 186 with constitutions, a majority are dictatorships. The men in charge control the courts, the legislatures, and alter or suspend their constitutions as they choose.
Since you have a special concern for Hispanics and for “people of color,” surely you are aware of Hugo Chavez who has surmounted his constitution and is running Venezuela into the ground, or Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe who has similar power and has utterly destroyed his once prosperous nation, with spates of murder thrown in.
By the way, I am also a person of color. The color is beige. From what I see on TV, we’re about the same.
The purpose of every constitution that actually works, as opposed to being mere window-dressing, is to restrain the branches of government within boundaries. Congress, for instance, has the power to “make policy.” See Article I generally, and Section 8 in particular. Courts do not have that power. It was sad to see the clip where you said they do, to law students at Duke. Sadder still was the fact that these budding lawyers and occasional judges laughed knowingly at your remark.
If you want to make policy, feel free to resign from the bench, run for Congress, and if you win, make policy morning, noon and night. But you have no right to keep your gavel and black robe, remain on the bench, and trample the Constitution when you feel an urge to make policy.
Thomas Jefferson said it best in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798: “let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution,” Don’t get your knickers in a twist over “man” meaning everyone, women included. It’s just a literary convention, like Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon, “One giant leap for mankind,”
The first task of any Justice of the Supreme Court is to know the Constitution, including the Amendment Article which gives the power to alter that document only to the sovereign people through elected representatives. The next task is to obey that Constitution. The third is to require parties in cases before the Court, to obey the Constitution.
You seem to have a problem with all three of those. That means that after you are sworn in, you will set out to violate your oath of office, repeatedly. If you really wanted to serve the nation and the Constitution, you’d withdraw your nomination, resign from the bench, and spend a year or so studying why the United States Constitution has survived longer than any other, and why the others have failed.
You are not alone in your ignorance. The President who appointed you, and the Senators who will probably vote to confirm, share your basic ignorance about why we have a Constitution and what that means.
Ah, well. Write when you get work.
Cordially,
John
