# Could Sotomayor be a closet conservative? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 27, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798 "2009-05-27T15:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/1 "2009-05-27T15:26:13Z")
And do to Obama what Souter did to Bush I? I can’t understand what the GOP is up in arms about. She really seems fairly balanced and holds her opinions close to her vest. Does anyone have any opinions or quotes (besides the firefighter exam opinion) that shows her to be a liberal? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/2 "2009-05-27T15:37:37Z")
Sotomayor’s got a longer federal appeals court record than Souter did, and I think that probably makes it unlikely. Souter was on the federal appeals circuit for four months before he was nominated to the Supreme Court; Sotomayor has been there for 10 years. (Before that, she was on a NY district court for six years, and he was on the New Hampshire Supreme Court for seven years and the superior court for five.) Justices surprises presidents sometimes, but when I looked over summaries of selected decisions she’d made over the years, her record looked pretty consistently liberal. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/3 "2009-05-27T15:39:05Z")
Also remember, it isn’t like Souter will go down in the pantheon of liberal gaints of the court. It’s only because the right has been so successful in shifting the goalposts that he is considered a liberal at all. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/4 "2009-05-27T15:52:01Z")
Well, she’s almost certainly anti-gun. But she is pro-Baseball. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/5 "2009-05-27T15:58:53Z")
She’s almost uniquely pro-First Amendment, which won’t endear her to the religious right. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/6 "2009-05-27T16:05:29Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Also remember, it isn’t like Souter will go down in the pantheon of liberal gaints of the court. It’s only because the right has been so successful in shifting the goalposts that he is considered a liberal at all. Well, we can quibble about how liberal or conservative he was, but I think we can agree he wasn’t a giant. He wasn’t terribly influential on any wing or school of legal thought, as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/7 "2009-05-27T16:17:40Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Also remember, it isn’t like Souter will go down in the pantheon of liberal gaints of the court. It’s only because the right has been so successful in shifting the goalposts that he is considered a liberal at all. ^^This really. > [@](#): > > “Justice Souter was a judicial version of a disappearing phenomenon: the moderate New England Republican,” said Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan. “He was not a true liberal, and he would not have been a liberal on the court of the 1960s or 1970s. But he believed in privacy and civil rights and precedents. That made him a liberal on the court today.” > > \ > > …Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) saw the virtues of a fellow New Englander. “Justice Souter fits the independent Yankee mold. Throughout his career, he has been committed to the law and not to ideology,” he said. > > SOURCE: [Justice Souter: Liberal or conservative?](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-souter4-2009may04,0,4695798.story) ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/8 "2009-05-27T16:20:35Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > And do to Obama what Souter did to Bush I? > > I can’t understand what the GOP is up in arms about. She really seems fairly balanced and holds her opinions close to her vest. Does anyone have any opinions or quotes (besides the firefighter exam opinion) that shows her to be a liberal? Lets hope so. Closet conservatives are the best judges. They tend not to be activists for either side. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/9 "2009-05-27T16:30:46Z")
I’m really not understanding the howling over Sotomayor from the Right. We have a Democrat as president and pretty solid control of both Houses. When a vacancy on the court opens up the sitting President gets to pick his guy/gal and naturally favors someone who tends to side with that President’s philosophies. The Right has gotten Scalia and Alito and Thomas. That’s how it works. That is how these things play out and have always. Now it is the Liberal’s turn to get an appointment and frankly they are not even replacing a Conservative so the character of the court will not even change much (if at all). The Right should be _thrilled_ that Sotomayor is nowhere near an Anti-Scalia. Nevertheless they are howling like a scalded cat over a provably moderate judge who has more bench experience than anyone else nominated to the SCOTUS in what…a hundred years? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/10 "2009-05-27T16:33:28Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Lets hope so. Closet conservatives are the best judges. They tend not to be activists for either side. Such as? ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/11 "2009-05-27T16:34:11Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Well, we can quibble about how liberal or conservative he was, but I think we can agree he wasn’t a giant. He wasn’t terribly influential on any wing or school of legal thought, as far as I can tell. Pragmatists don’t tend to be. They like things like balancing tests that don’t set firm law. It is telling that you give the impression at least of thinking that if you aren’t a liberal on the Court, you must be a conservative. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/12 "2009-05-27T16:39:07Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Lets hope so. Closet conservatives are the best judges. They tend not to be activists for either side. So I’m assuming you’re ruling Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, et al. from that category? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/13 "2009-05-27T16:41:29Z")
It’s not Scalia’s _conservatism_ that’s closeted, you know. Honestly, I can’t think of any closet conservatives. Thomas was a closet black guy until that cross-burning case, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/14 "2009-05-27T16:41:31Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I’m really not understanding the howling over Sotomayor from the Right. What howling? I’ve been reading articles [like this](http://www.theroot.com/views/obama-stumps-gop-sotomayor) commenting on the _lack_ of howling coming from the GOP. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/15 "2009-05-27T16:46:27Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I’m really not understanding the howling over Sotomayor from the Right. > > We have a Democrat as president and pretty solid control of both Houses. When a vacancy on the court opens up the sitting President gets to pick his guy/gal and naturally favors someone who tends to side with that President’s philosophies. It’s just theater. The GOP has a large constituency that cares about keeping liberals off the Court, so to keep them happy, they have to at least make a show of trying to stop Obama’s nomination. I’m sure most Republican Senators realize its a lost cause, if for no other reason then even if they did sink Sotomayor, the end result would be Obama nominating someone who was just as liberal, and the end result being the same. We saw the same thing play out with Alito, Dems knew that trying to filibuster his nomination wasn’t going to change the final result, but they can go back to their constituencies and say they tried to do something. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/16 "2009-05-27T16:51:56Z")
> [@cckerberos](#): > > What howling? I’ve been reading articles [like this](http://www.theroot.com/views/obama-stumps-gop-sotomayor) commenting on the _lack_ of howling coming from the GOP. Or there is [this](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22965.html) and that doesn’t even include Limbaugh among the critics (which of course he is one). There are lots more if you really want me to dig them up. A taste from that link: > [@](#): > > “Sotomayor comes from the far left,” Huckabee said in a statement. > > \ > > Charmaine Yoest, the president of Americans United for Life, blasted Sotomayor as “a radical pick that divides America.” > > \ > > The Judicial Confirmation Network circulated a memo from its counsel, Wendy Long, calling Sotomayor a “favorite of far-left special interest groups” who will “indulge … left-wing policy preferences instead of neutrally applying the law.” ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/17 "2009-05-27T17:58:54Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Well, she’s almost certainly anti-gun. But she is pro-Baseball. Curiously, she was pro-player in the baseball case and pro-management in the NFL case. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/18 "2009-05-27T18:09:24Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain] Could Sotomayor be a closet conservative? [/QUOTE] No…not unless you are so left wing that moderates look like conservatives. Ok…perhaps here on the 'dope that’s true. 😉 > [@](#): > > I can’t understand what the GOP is up in arms about. Well, from what I’ve seen so far it’s really the right wingers who are ‘up in arms’ about this…and, conversely to the majority of 'dopers, right wingers are going to see anyone who is even vaguely moderate as a left winger. Also, there is a feeling among some conservatives/right wingers that when it was THEIR turn to attempt to select a new justice that there was the same kind of furor from the left over their choices…so, this is pretty much de rigueur. -XT ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/19 "2009-05-27T18:24:31Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Well, from what I’ve seen so far it’s really the right wingers who are ‘up in arms’ about this…and, conversely to the majority of 'dopers, right wingers are going to see anyone who is even vaguely moderate as a left winger. Also, there is a feeling among some conservatives/right wingers that when it was THEIR turn to attempt to select a new justice that there was the same kind of furor from the left over their choices…so, this is pretty much de rigueur. > > -XT But, lets say that the GOP can dig up some dirt on Sotomayer that sinks her nomination. Obama is going to simply appoint another liberal, which if the Dope has taught me anything, there sure as hell isn’t any shortage of them. 😉 It’s not like that by defeating this nomination you get another Scalia or Thomas on the Court. So what’s the point? Why not look magnanimous and support the nomination, then when the real fight comes (say when Scalia steps down) they can rightfully say, “I supported Sotomayer, but not THIS nominee”! But the main part of my post was that she doesn’t seem THAT godawful bad for being an Obama pick.. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798/20 "2009-05-27T18:35:50Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > No…not unless you are so left wing that moderates look like conservatives. Ok…perhaps here on the 'dope that’s true. 😉 Not in jtgain’s case. 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-sotomayor-be-a-closet-conservative/497798.md?page=2)