Specter: Ricci Decision Shows Sotomayor Is Mainstream
Hmm, this one won’t make newly-minted Dem Arlen Specter any more friends on the right.
One of the looming tests of whether Specter’s party switch carried real benefits for Dems was how he’d handle the Sonia Sotomayor nomination. Well, now the Supreme Court has handed down its hotly-anticipated Ricci ruling, upholding 5-4 the white firefighters’ claim of discrimination by New Haven. Sotomayor originally ruled for New Haven.
And though Specter, a prominent Senate voice on judicial issues, has yet to commit to backing Sotomayor, he just blasted out a statement that will give aid and comfort to her allies:
“The 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in Ricci v. DeStefano is a confirmation that the ruling could have gone either way and the Second Circuit judgment, including Judge Sotomayor’s, has plenty of company with the four dissenting Justices.”
By claiming that the ruling could have gone “either way” and that Sotomayor has “plenty of company,” Specter is basically arguing that despite what conservative critics say, the Ricci ruling shows she’s squarely in the judicial mainstream. So chalk another one up for team-playing-Dem Specter.
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I actually thought he DID commit to Sotomayor. I know he has been talking her up several times.
sg — yes, he’s talked her up, but when pressed he won’t commit to backing her. how real his non-committal stance is anybody’s guess, but that’s what he’s saying…
i think you can chalk up spector’s position due to
a case of FOS fear of sestak.
but if you don’t like a specter position, wait a few
minutes and it will change.
in a recent PA poll – 28% favor spector for re-election. Was 40% before his switch.
Never, ever, ever, ever assume Specter will vote in accordance with what he says about a topic in public in advance.
It would have been appropriate for him, or someone, to point out the “judicial activism” and “legislating from the bench” that the right wings did on this decision. While I don’t have any particular complaint about the substance of the decision other than the implication that written exams have any correlation whatsoever with being a fire chief, Judge Sotomayor and the other judges who voted with her (all of them) were in fact following the law as it was written.