Opposition

Sonia Is 'Affirmative Action' Pick

Conservatives also call her Obama's Harriet Miers.

Republican senators may be reluctant to attack Sonia Sotomayor, but conservatives who are not beholden to voters are quickly gathering around the affirmative-action meme. “Does she think the figure of Justice should lift her blindfold, an emblem of impartiality, and be partial to certain categories of persons?” George Will asks in his column. “Affirmative action standards are a bad way to pick one of the nine most influential jurists in the U.S.” Richard Epstein writes in Forbes. Others are asking whether Sotomayor is Obama’s “Harriet Miers”—which suggests that she is inexperienced and therefore was chosen based on other considerations. Will it work? Dahlia Lithwick at Slate asks, “Why did Republicans treat Samuel Alito's blue collar upbringing as a great humanizing factor in his confirmation hearings? Why did they deem Clarence Thomas' childhood poverty an advantage, whereas they now cast Sotomayor's as a handicap?” She concludes, “The case against Sotomayor—to the extent it's being made, is that her life is such a tumultuous blend of personal hardship and deep feeling that she cannot separate the law from her own agenda. In short, she feels too much.”