would not bring in her feelings? Adam Abensohn, a law clerk to Sotomayor earlier in her career, said of the recent dissents, "If she has a viewpoint, she won't hesitate to assert herself. If she thinks it's a good idea to do something, she's not going to hold back simply because 'it's not the way things are done' or because she's relatively new."
Why then, does she not hesitate to assert herself? Why does she "often break in as a fellow justice is questioning a lawyer"? Why has "Jonathan Kirshbaum, a senior lawyer at the non-profit Center for Appellate Litigation in New York, which represents indigent defendants, said he has been struck by how Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, has "come out so strongly for criminal defendants."?
Is she Insane?
"That dynamic was on display this fall, when a court that leans conservative on cases of crime and punishment heard California's appeal in a case where a panel of three federal judges had ordered the release of about 40,000 prisoners. The state's lawyer stepped to the lectern with reason to expect a friendly reception.
The order is "extraordinary and unprecedented," Carter G. Phillips began, and "extraordinarily premature" because the state was not given enough time to solve its prison problems.
But Sotomayor soon cut him off.
"Slow down from the rhetoric," she said, launching into a withering discussion of the state's 20-year history of severe prison overcrowding and "the needless deaths" from poor medical care."
Does she not remember what happened when this happened?
"He recalled what happened when prisoners were released under a court order in Philadelphia. The upshot, according to a supporting brief filed by 18 states, was “an extraordinary crime wave” that included 79 murders, 90 rapes and 1,113 assaults over a year and a half in 1993 and 1994. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/us/politics/28bar.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2010-12-27-courtdissents27_ST_N.htm
Why then, does she not hesitate to assert herself? Why does she "often break in as a fellow justice is questioning a lawyer"? Why has "Jonathan Kirshbaum, a senior lawyer at the non-profit Center for Appellate Litigation in New York, which represents indigent defendants, said he has been struck by how Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, has "come out so strongly for criminal defendants."?
Is she Insane?
"That dynamic was on display this fall, when a court that leans conservative on cases of crime and punishment heard California's appeal in a case where a panel of three federal judges had ordered the release of about 40,000 prisoners. The state's lawyer stepped to the lectern with reason to expect a friendly reception.
The order is "extraordinary and unprecedented," Carter G. Phillips began, and "extraordinarily premature" because the state was not given enough time to solve its prison problems.
But Sotomayor soon cut him off.
"Slow down from the rhetoric," she said, launching into a withering discussion of the state's 20-year history of severe prison overcrowding and "the needless deaths" from poor medical care."
Does she not remember what happened when this happened?
"He recalled what happened when prisoners were released under a court order in Philadelphia. The upshot, according to a supporting brief filed by 18 states, was “an extraordinary crime wave” that included 79 murders, 90 rapes and 1,113 assaults over a year and a half in 1993 and 1994. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/us/politics/28bar.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2010-12-27-courtdissents27_ST_N.htm