Thanks for the pdf. I certainly would like to see attorneys’ opinions posted here regarding Ms. Sotomayor’s overall fitness as a potential SC justice based on the CRS Report.

That reminks me, I thought CRS was a mental disease involving something like: Caint Remember Stuff or words to that effect.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40649.pdf

Watch the segment from Hardball today and judge for yourself if you want to interject a possible disclaimer.

—————

WoW, or better yet put up a link under the heading ‘LOL’s for all: Check it out, I made this fools head ’splode!’

Hopefully, your ears were burning this afternoon when Pat Buchanan invoked your name on Hardball and the activities surrounding your review of Judge Sotomayor’s 30-odd cases you’ve just completed. Good to hear him use you as a talking point in his hysterical and highly-racist rant around the Judge.

Watch the segment from Hardball today and judge for yourself if you want to interject a possible disclaimer.

From “Mutants, On Genetic Variety and the Human Body” by Armand Marie Leroi (A very well written and interesting book, but due to inclusion of photographs, diagrams, etc. of some of the effects of some mutations not for the faint of heart): But the Vast Majority of the world’s cases of cretinism are caused by a simple lack of dietary iodine. The tragedy of six million cretins is that the cure and the prevention of the disease is known, and costs next to nothing: it is simply iodised salt.

“I do not know if the disease was connected to the island. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. Of course, with my serial typoism (a reference to the Island of Typo), I have nothing more to say on this subject.”

***********

I am writing out in longhand 500 times that I will never use the word “Cretan” again.

JT,
I’ve already stipulated that some of my best friends are Cretans (or was that cretins?). Not allowing them to marry my daughter was strictly from a religious standpoint. However, since your brood is still young perhaps you haven’t yet realized that once they reach adulthood they’re going to do as they damn well please and that we as loving parents will cheerfully accede.

Anyway, perhaps he would be willing to convert, though that is highly unlikely if he hasn’t been circumcised. Oy vey, the problems I must consider and all the while feeling guilty about everything.

You could not have explained everything to BVM in more simplistic terms and with more patience; therefore, I assume his abject ignorance for which there is a resolution, if he so chooses.

I didn’t vote tax money to Fund a War. Congress did. They are supreme War Criminals! Guilty of all the crimes and atrocities!

The War would have ended without their funding.

BVM,
Your claims and positions are so ludicrous as to make responding to them demeaning. Your contention that everyone who voted for war funding is a war criminal is nonsense. I would broaden the definition though to anyone who lives in the US, or pays taxes is a war criminal. Which I assume makes you one. If you truly believe as you say I would hope you have the courage enough to turn yourself in now at either Spain or The Hague.

your comment that an underprivliged minority will bring unique skills (i.e., better decision making) than overprivilged white males is racists as well. There are more underprivileged white males and women in this country that also have life experiences that a minority, irrespective of privilige, that would bring unique skills (i.e., different than minorities) to the Court. That does not make them a better jurists, just a person that may bring a different perspective. Making a statement that a person of a different race will bring unique skills is a statement based on race, period. In addition, the application of the law is required to be applied equally for similarly situated persons (i.e., 14th ammendment). The law is not applied different based on race or someones privilege status. If federal laws were applied differently based on race/privilege, then I would agree with you.

Clearly you don’t have logic and morals of U.S. law else you would be calling for Obama, et al’s arrests for War Crimes, treason, fraud, forgery, etc.

Despite my boundless respect for you (and thankfulness for your contributions to this site), I must share something that I recently researched on a lark. Saying that you will not allow your daughters to marry Cretans would be a direct slap at the good (and highly valued potential spouses) of the Island of Crete. Some have traced the term “cretin” to “cretinism” — a severe deficiency of thyroid hormones (a condition known as “hypothyroidism”). This condition can result in stunted growth, physical deformities and cognitive impairment. Now, before you assume that I can suggesting that only a cretin would denounce a cretan, rest assured — I researched this term because I have used the same spelling. Indeed, when I used Cretin in a column, a copy editor corrected it to Cretan. Go figure. However, in case you are going for a Greek holiday anytime soon, I wanted to give you fair warning: some Cretans can be real cretins over language. I do not know if the disease was connected to the island. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. Of course, with my serial typoism (a reference to the Island of Typo), I have nothing more to say on this subject.

Patty C,
What purpose does this serve and so why do it?

I must say I am growing weary of people, mostly white males, rephrasing and attempting to minimize Sonia Sosotmayors recently perceived ‘alarming’ statements.

Her statements are being taken out of the context made in ab atmosphere of questioning, subsequently now being held up, and ultimately severely criticized in light of her nomination.

No big surprise there!

Successful women, including myself, continue to have relevant ongoing unpleasant experiences when dealing with men who, likewise, could very easily be viewed as incompetent based on their failing positions and less than stellar performances and who are thereby, understandably, insecure in the workplace.

There is no simpler explanation because that is the same one being projected by these very same men.

Professional women constantly have to reprove themselves, everyday, and in a continually less than fair and discriminatory fashion than has ever been automatically required of men – period.

Sonia Sotomayor has every reason to balk in the presence of such glaring unfairness and proceed to dig in her heels. It’s not fair – either in coming or in the going,

That is likely her personal bent, simply because she knows what it has meant for herself, from the beginning. It’s something that need to be fixed, not something SHE needs get off.

She is doing pretty well, all matters considered.

I am happy to have found this site…I have always appreciated the logic coming from a legal mind that uses that mind for the promotion and the understanding of the Constitution.

My choice for the court would have been you but then I have a tendency to go away from the politics of a thing and straight for the Constitution. Unfortunately, we have become too much a nation of politics and not a nation of truth…

Thank you for your most sound discussion of this nominee. We can only hope that Congress takes the same time and trouble to be as informed in their decision making process. Somehow I doubt that will be the case……

“Talk about racism, what did any of those people from that little Greek island do to get kicked off this blawg?”

***************

Right you are to point up my blind acceptance of the Cretan paradox uttered by the Cretan poet Epimenides that, “All Cretans are Liars.” Too much time around the Greco-Roman classics I suppose. I officially renounce my previous discrimination against the residents of Candia (I like the Italian word better than the stick-in-your-throat word “Crete”), and vow to do better in the future.

“Birth Certificate Issue No. 1 at Fox News”

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=99549

Like either approach would ever work and to what end?
… NOT!

I’ve never cared for brown nosers! And I suspect I’m never alone in that regard.

“…throwing out the Cretans…”
__________

Talk about racism, what did any of those people from that little Greek island do to get kicked off this blawg?

You are kind.

“Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.
Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society.”

“Each day on the bench I learn something new about the judicial process and about being a professional Latina woman in a world that sometimes looks at me with suspicion. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.”

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/26_sotomayor.shtml

Sonia Sotomayor is perhaps an ‘unknown’ in her written opinions, but she is not unknown or unknowing in many other respects having to do with minorities and women.

JT, you admit that the magazine cover piece you are writing is subjective and I submit you fell deep into that category when you characterized her as a ‘lightweight’.

If she is confirmed, and I am not routing for her especially either, she won’t be a lightweight any longer. And because of my background and experience in two male dominated fields, unless I miss my guess, that is the real issue here, most unfortunately.

‘We see this’, as we all say in medicine.

I wish her well and I won’t be upset at all if she passes confirmation.

‘You GO girl’…

p.s. I am an extremely powerful woman, by all accounts here on the turlee blog, and I have NO idea!!!

I know I’ve mentioned these two books before, but they’re good: “The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” and “The Science of Good and Evil.” I think you’d really get a lot from them. A bit of a warning though, after reading the first one the Primate exhibits at zoos loose some of their appeal.

on the racist issue, what are your thoughts into the actual nature or reason for racism?

If you look at the animal kingdom in general all species tend to congregate with their own. Fish, ungulates, wolves, lions, etc.. Could there be some left over survival mechanism that is no longer needed but still influences our actions and therefore our thoughts?

“But riddle-me this Batman, is there any instance where one can say that one would make a better judge because one is a white middle ( or upper ) class male? Is there a single instance you could think of where anyone would get away with that statement?”
_________

Yes, in my opinion I think that would apply to Professor Turley, specifically in this instance. Although I know much less of the others’ published legal opinions and legal standing, I would still most likely include many of the middle-to-upper class white male lawyers who post here as capable of judgeships at different levels of the judiciary (no lists because I might leave someone out).

It does not bother me in the least what Ms. Sotomayor said, because in large part it is factual regarding a certain proportion of her legal deliberations. Similarly, I think that accomplished middle-to-upper class white males can make certain claims based on experience, educational excellence, and all of the other measures with which we judge accomplishments. In today’s world, can such a male state that publicly? Almost assuredly not, but I think such proclamations are factually correct, in many instances.

That is why I want more diversity on the Supreme Court and in the other branches of government, as long as there are stringent qualifications to which all applicants and nominees are equally subjected. Ms. Sotomayor has exceeded all of the reasonable measures to become a Supreme Court Justice, notwithstanding her comments that—to me—say she is just more honest than most and that should matter a great deal to all of us.

I think one can have a special pride in, or comfort level, with their own race/ethnicity without being racist.

But riddle-me this Batman, is there any instance where one can say that one would make a better judge because one is a white middle ( or upper ) class male? Is there a single instance you could think of where anyone would get away with that statement?

I guess being a white middle class male must make me an inferior lawyer as well. I guess my parents should have stayed in Puerto Rico where both my mother and I were born so I could claim a more “authentic” heritage, transforming me into a super lawyer.

My wife’s Puerto Rican too. But alas, my son has blond hair and we live ina nice suberb outside of Chicago. I think I need to move us back to some bullit ridden area of Humbolt Park so he can fully realise his potential.

________

PJT wrote:

“I am afraid that Lorn will have to go to one of the same sites — on the left and the right — that appear to cater to personal attacks and juvenile name calling.”
________

We all should remember that many people read and/or link to this blawg. Since it is “THE #1 LEGAL THEORY AND LAW PROFESSOR BLOG OF THE TOP 100 LEGAL BLOGS BY THE ABA JOURNAL” I think that we must keep very high standards.

If the standards continue to decline—as they have recently—I will be a strong written and voting opponent of this site during next year’s vote. After all, this is a blawg dealing with legal theory and practices and as such, honesty and integrity–to the hightest extent the blogosphere is capable–must be paramount.

I have learned an abundance of legal opinions here and the attached essay and relevant comments are excellent examples of what this site is capable.

Realistically, what people post here is somewhat reflective of the blawg’s host and his worldview, temperament, and biases.

Part of what I think separates committed (self identifying) Jews (like myself) from their fellow citizens is that what to us is our history absorbed as we grew, is really unfamiliar to the non-Jews around us. This has some bearing on Christian teachings, but I think it is that in our smallness in numbers, our history is of little importance to the rest of the world.

That Jews have succeeded in many fields at rates way beyond our numbers is true because we are one of the few religions and cultures where literacy is a basic need for worship. Due to this Jews prize scholarship above all else. That is why in general we are successful, but in today’s America, with the influx of Asian citizens we see Asian children excelling at similar rates. This is because culturally the Asian immigrants see education as the path to success also.

In the end with all our personal/cultural histories humanity is pretty much equal despite genetic heritage, it is the hater’s and the oppressors who cause the internecine strife.
Nevertheless, I appreciate your kind words and your willingness to delve further on your own into Jewish history.
Jews believe all righteous people are loved by God (I’m using this metaphorically)so we don’t proselytize, but as a small group we are egotistical enough to enjoy people’s attention.

Well watch a kid from our area on the Tigers named Justin Verlander. He’s been pitching that hard since I first saw him in Little League. Nice Italian kid too.

You do amaze me, well everyone does. Some just more than others.

Age has its privileges as does continuity.

Somebody’s creating trouble, I can’t wait for the swath of the scythe. Heads will roll I tell you. ROFLMAO. Oh but then you will probably get away with it because you are an Original. You sly dog you. lol

My pitiful reply was an attempt to infer to our trollish friend that in the “country” I call home such name-calling and inane commentary have no place. Oh well back to listening to a fine video speech by Kofi Annan on the issue of world hunger. Good evening!

I am afraid that Lorn will have to go to one of the same sites — on the left and the right — that appear to cater to personal attacks and juvenile name calling.