Cornyn says no go on Sotomayor -- but why?

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, says he admires U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and finds her decisions to be within the mainstream of American jurisprudence. But he says he’ll vote against her confirmation for the high court anyway. The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Cornyn is a member, is expected to vote on Sotomayor’s confirmation on Tuesday. Cornyn, who hails from San Antonio, is a former Texas attorney general and former Texas Supreme Court justice. In a statement today, here’s what the junior senator from Texas said about Sotomayor, currently a judge on the 2nd Circuit: “She is an experienced judge with an excellent academic background. She has the temperament we expect from members of our highest court. And – for the most part – her decisions as a District Court judge and on the Second Court of Appeals were within the mainstream of American jurisprudence. Yet going into the hearings, I also had questions that I felt she needed to answer. While her record was generally in the mainstream, several of her decisions demonstrated the kind of liberal judicial activism that has steered the court in the wrong direction over the last few years. And many of her public statements reflected a surprisingly radical view of the law. Now, some have said that we can ignore her speeches – and just focus on her decisions as a judge. I disagree. Judges on our lower courts have less room to maneuver than those on the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justices can more easily ignore precedents or reinterpret them. This is why Judge Sotomayor’s speeches on judicial philosophy matter to me.” Cornyn’s vote is why the Republican Party should worry about keeping its stronghold in Texas in the future -- a state that has an enormous Hispanic voting population that grows larger and larger each year.
-- John Council