President Barack Obama has chosen U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to sit on the Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama announced his pick to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court.  Federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor would become the third woman to serve on the court and the first Hispanic justice. 

Sotomayor is most likely assured confirmation by the Senate thanks to the Democrat majority but there is not doubt Republicans will be looking at her with a microscope.  It only took a matter of hours before a few troubling items on her resume propped up.

First, a 2001 speech in which she said, “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.”  These comment dimish the experiences of others – no matter what race they are – and that is not something we would hope to see.   Further, one could certainly make the case that this is a very racist statement – if a white man had made a similar comment comparing himself to a Hispanic, there would be a great deal of public outcry to say the least.

Second, a 2008 ruling she rendered in a case involving a suit by firefighters accusing the city for which they work of reverse discrimination.  The case involved 19 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter who sued the city of New Haven, Connecticut saying it engaged in racial discrimination.  The city had thrown out the results of two promotion tests because none of those that passed were black.  All of the plaintiffs had passed and every right to expect to be advanced.  Igorning 1,800 pages of testimony and an hour of arugment, Sotomayor issued a one paragraph ruling that did not even discuss the merits of the case.  This appears to hardly be a judge devoted to thoughtful opinion and rather one by a person bent on political correctness.  The case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Lastly and most disturbing is a video of a 2005 panel discussion  in which Sotomayor took part in and proclaimed that a “court of appeals is where policy is made.”  See the video below.  This would indicate that Sotomayor fails to grasp the court’s role and Republicans are sure to seize on this as an indication of yet another activist judge that legislates from the bench.