Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Rep. Franks Implores Senate to Consider Sotomayor's Questionable Constitutional Record




July 28, 2009 - Congressman Trent Franks (R - AZ) today released the following statement on the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote in support of the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court:

"Every American who loves the United States Constitution should be deeply concerned over the Senate Judiciary Committee's 13-6 vote in favor of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She was consistently evasive throughout her hearings when asked about her view on a wide variety of Constitutional issues, and often her rhetoric clearly contradicted her judicial record.

"Judge Sotomayor spent twelve years working for the controversial, radically left-wing Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDF). As such, her pretense of ignorance regarding the PRLDF’s radical stance on abortion while she served in a leadership capacity - equating the denial of public funding of abortion with slavery – stretches the bounds of credulity.

"Judge Sotomayor twice has ruled that the Second Amendment is not a 'fundamental right,' and thus does not apply to state and local governments.

"She has also stated that American courts should rely more on foreign law, lest we "lose influence in the world."

"When the Supreme Court recently reviewed Judge Sotomayor's decision to deny firefighters a promotion based solely on their race, all nine justices rejected her reasoning. Indeed, the flawed nature of her reasoning was one of the few points upon which all nine justices could agree.

"Her hostility to the United States Constitution; her undermining of Second Amendment rights; her support of radical racial preferences like the one exhibited in the Ricci case; her opposition to parental notification laws for abortions for minors; and her work for PRLDF all suggest that she would only worsen the national trend of judicial activism and use her post to promote her own political ideology.

"Judge Sotomayor has stated multiple times that her gender and ethnicity would make her a "better" judge than a white man; she has disagreed with Justice O'Conner's famous statement that a wise man and a wise woman could reach the same conclusion; and she has publicly stated that the 'courts are where policy is made.'

"All of these things signify an adherence to a form of "identity politics" that flies in the face of the principles of equal justice and the separation of powers so meticulously outlined in the Constitution. We should all shudder to envision Judge Sotomayor's ideology being granted the nearly carte blanch power of the highest court in America.

"I commend those Senators who opposed Judge Sotomayor's nomination; and I hope all of my colleagues in the Senate will give serious consideration to the many gravely concerning revelations that have come out in the past weeks and have cast serious doubt on whether Judge Sotomayor meets the standard of Constitutional jurisprudence that should be required of a Supreme Court Justice."

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