Friday, June 05, 2009

Supreme Court Speculation

I find it fun to speculate how Ms. Sotomayor's confirmation to the Court might work out. We know Ginsburg and Scalia are the best of friends, which is totally surprising and counter-intuitive, so let me guess:
  • Sotomayor and Thomas might well get on. He seems shy, she seems not, they share a background in that their opponents diss their appointments and careers as affirmative action babies.
  • Roberts, Alito, and Sotomayor are of an age, so there might be a generational divide. It might be hard for Sotomayor to show Stevens, Ginsburg, and Breyer the deference which they might expect from their seniority. Sotomayor, Roberts, and Alito might form a "new boys [sic]" club.
  • Obviously Ginsburg and Sotomayor would share the gender experience.
  • Alito graduated from Princeton before she did, and didn't like the idea of women undergrads, but old alums might share a bond.
  • There seems to be little common ground between Sotomayor and Stevens or Kennedy, which might be bad news for us liberals.
Of course, the other lesson from the Ginsburg/Scalia bond is that justices can perfectly well separate their opinions and their personal feelings.

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