The XX Factor: What women really think.

The Supreme Court Is Afraid of Gossip Girls and Boys

A post from DoubleX intern Jessica Dweck:

In an Onion-esque piece of news this week, the New York Times reported that Justice Anthony Kennedy ordered a student newspaper to “tidy up” its coverage of his recent appearance at a high school assembly. Kennedy, an ardent protector of First Amendment rights—and apparently, irony–allowed the young journalists to attend the event on the condition that his office would pre-approve any articles written about him.

Why would Justice Kennedy do such a thing? Two reasons. First, the Bill of Rights protects speech in part to encourage transparency and create a Millian slurry of ideas in which the creamy globs of truth eventually float to the top. An inaccurate or misleading quotation by reporters with exclusive access to Kennedy's speech would be nearly impossible to correct. Second, and perhaps more fundamentally, the Supreme Court has a deep-seated interest in practicing defensive PR ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)

Even The Very Worst Prosecutors Can't Be Sued, For Good Reason

A post from DoubleX writer K.J. Dell'Antonia:

Supreme Court followers (and NPR listeners) heard an outrageous story today—that of an innocent man who spent more than two decades in prison for a murder he didn't commit before evidence of the apparent gross racism and misconduct of the police and prosecutors who put him there was uncovered. It's hard not to crave justice for this man—but what seems just for him will make justice less likely for everyone else.

Lawyers for Terry Harrison have argued that although it's long been clear that prosecutors cannot be sued for doing their job—for actually prosecuting a defendant for a crime—there is no immunity for investigative activity. Harrison claims he can sue his prosecutors for their participation in what was at best a botched investigation and at worst an outright conspiracy to arrest the wrong person for the crime. In other words, he's not suing them for prosecuting his trial, he's suing them for helping to put him in a position to be tried in the first place ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX).

The Sotomayor Confirmation and the Gates Arrest

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in support of Judge Sonia Sotomayor this morning almost entirely along partisan lines—13 to 7, with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina the only Republican in favor. Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. She made it through her hearings without the “meltdown” that Graham said would be needed to stop her confirmation, and also without giving Republicans any additional ammunition to oppose her. Yet today’s "no" voters included John Cornyn of Texas, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee and so presumably thinks about the long-term national health of his party, and comes from a state that is 36 percent Hispanic, and Jon Kyl of Arizona, which is almost 30 percent Hispanic. The GOP stance leaves the party without an answer to this headline in Politico: “Democrats have huge day with Hispanics.”

From Samoas to Sotomayor: Girl Scouts at the Confirmation Hearing

A post from Double X writer Meredith Simons:

When a pack of smartly-uniformed firefighters strode out of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing Thursday, they were greeted by a throng of reporters—and six girls in green t-shirts, their point-and-shoots at the ready. The members of Greater King David Baptist Church's Girl Scout troop had just listened to two of the firefighters testify, and now they crowded together, photographing the firemen as they walked by. This was the best day of their trip. (Read more in Double X.)

No More Mr. Nice GOP

A guest post from Double X intern Meredith Simons:

If Sen. Jeff Sessions' 20 minutes with Sonia Sotomayor this afternoon is any indication, Republicans feel a new urgency in this second (and final) round of questioning. Before he began, Sessions' aides distributed 70-page packets of highlighted, tabbed documents regarding Sotomayor's tenure with the Puerto Rico Education and Legal Defense Fund. When his turn came, Sessions dispensed with the usual niceties about how well the nominee is holding up and jumped right in, accusing Sotomayor of promoting the idea that judges' "backgrounds, sympathies, and prejudices" should and do affect judicial decisions ... (Read more in Double X.)

Let Me Tell You a Thing or Two

A post from Double X writer Meredith Simons:

Of all the stylistically tone-deaf things Sen. Lindsey Graham said to Sonia Sotomayor Tuesday, the worst was his declaration that he was going to tell a 55-year-old judge with 18 years of appellate experience how the world works ... (Read more in Double X.)

The New Sotomayor: Wise But Not Better Than Anyone Else

I prefer Sotomayor’s effort to put her wise Latina point in context to the talking points the Obama administration previously came up with ... (Read more in Double X.)

How the New Haven Firefighters Ruling Affects Sotomayor

On Slate, Walter Dellinger and Linda Greenhouse agree that Judge Sotomayor has little to fear from today's Supreme Court ruling in favor of the white New Haven firefighters who sued their city when it threw out the results of a test for promotions. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion barely mentions the brief panel opinion Sotomayor signed. Justice Alito's concurrence is a little more critical, but not much. Court observers, including me, will patiently explain that the Supreme Court came up with a whole new rule in its decision today, which it wasn't Sotomayor's job, as a Second Circuit judge, to do. This is how the law is supposed to develop: The lower courts abide by their own precedents, and the Supreme Court's prior rulings, until the high bench tell them to shift course.

Is Sotomayor the New Alito?

Now that the insulting question of whether Sonia Sotomayor is just another Harriet Miers has subsided, a new one arises: Does Barack Obama's nominee have more in common with conservative justice Sam Alito? Liberals opposed Alito far more strenuously than they did current Chief Justice and George W. Bush nominee John Roberts. An Italian from working-class roots who also attended Princeton, Alito wields the same, "up from the bootstraps" personal history as Sotomayor. And—much like the Obama administration's emphasis on its nominee's "wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life's journey"—the Bush White House stressed... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

What About Sotomayor's Underlying Sentiment?

You're right, Hanna. The White House, and Sotomayor, too, by agreeing to the walk back, are giving the "wise Latina" mini-fracas more air, not less. Her speech sparked an interesting and even vital discussion this week about the value of having judges with different life experiences on the bench. Now we move to hedging and hemming and hawing? I'll ask the next question they'd all be better off not spending the weekend fielding... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Of Course the Bench Would Be Better With More Latina Judges

A guest post from Cornell law professor Eduardo M. Peñalver, who clerked on the Second Circuit for Judge Guido Calabresi and on the Supreme Court for Justice John Paul Stevens:

As some of you have pointed out, considered in the context the rest of her speech, it is clear that Sotomayor merely meant that appointing “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences” to the bench would (on average) do more to improve judicial decision-making than appointing a(nother) comparably wise white male judge. Understood in this way, the comment is benign and, more importantly, almost certainly true.

Crucial to understanding Judge Sotomayor’s argument is... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

It's Only Activism When Liberals Say It

Jason Linkins has a great piece up at Huffington Post quoting Justice Samuel Alito on the virtues of judicial empathy. (“When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.") And also quoting Antonin Scalia on the power of courts to “make law.” To which I add... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Enough Already About Sotomayor and Identity Politics

A guest post from Yale law professor Heather Gerken:

Over the last day, I’ve been fielding calls from reporters, members of your tribe, many of whom have asked some variation on the following questions: “What role does identity politics play on the Supreme Court, and should those who support civil-rights causes be happy about Judge Sotomayor’s nomination?” (This, for what it’s worth, is almost a direct quote).

There is only one sensible answer to such questions. Please stop. Honestly. It’s embarrassing even to have to say this, but let me spell it out... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Sotomayor, Reverse Racist

Sotomayor Holds Her Nose

A New Kind of Feminist Justice?

Why Does Sotomayor Want Us to Think She Is Ordinary?

Accepting Obama's nomination to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor said:

I hope that as the Senate and American people learn more about me, they will see that I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences.

Set aside the choice to describe her childhood—growing up with diabetes in a poor, single-family household—as having been "blessed with extraordinary opportunities." What troubles me is the plea from a woman just nominated to fill one of the most powerful, demanding, intellectually challenging positions in the nation to be viewed as "ordinary"... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Sonia Sotomayor's Intuitive Mysticism

The Latina Is Wiser than the White Man!

Emily, you pull out the critical quote from Sotomayor's speech: "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."

This quote does not go down easy. As Stuart Taylor pointed out last week, what if Samuel Alito had said: "I would hope that a white male with the richness of his traditional American values would reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman who hasn't lived that life." We would chuck him over to some Idaho compound, no?... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Barack's Angels?

Every day the media attention paid President Obama’s Supreme Court shortlist gets a little more bogged down in reviving cheesy literary archetypes. Articles like this one unerringly paint Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the tempestuous “Fiery Latina” to Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s tender “Den Mother,” and then contrast both to Diane Wood’s brainy “Bench Balancer.” Why do these three types seem so eerily familiar?? Hmm. Might it be because... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)