Does Sotomayor Have “Empathy” or Not?

Today was Day 2 of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to consider Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  She contradicted herself several times in attempting to answer probing questions from Republican Senators.

In an effort to make her appear more acceptable to the majority of Americans, Democrat Senator Schumer spent about 30 minutes describing cases that had come before Judge Sotomayor in the past.  Each case involved parties most people, especially The Left, would find “sympathetic.”  In each case, Schumer announced triumphantly, Judge Sotomayor had ruled against the sympathetic parties.  In other words, she had not shown “empathy.”

Back in April, President Obama was asked what qualities he would seek in his first nominee for the Supreme Court.  He repeated the word he had used on the campaign trail: “empathy.”  When asked for clarification a senior administration official said:

President Obama is keen on choosing a Supreme Court justice who possesses the quality of  imagination. To Obama, that means someone who can see beyond the legal formalism that characterizes most court decisions and deliberations…a capacity to relate to real world experiences…

While The Left loves a judge who will swerve away from the Constitution and the written law to achieve a favored outcome for a defendant or litigant, most Americans want judges and courts to restrict their authority to the law and the Constitution, regardless of the outcome.

To help Judge Sotomayor appear more acceptable to the majority of Americans Senator Schumer has tried his best to portray her as not meeting Obama’s empathy test.