Picking Sonia

I've held off discussing President Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sontomayor, because I know little about her and much of the public debate so far about identity politics, etc., has been uninformative. Thankfully, via SCOTUSBlog, there's a lot of information now available about her that I'll be perusing over the coming weeks:

Judge Sotomayor’s completed Senate Judiciary questionnaire is available for download here.

The transcript of her confirmation hearing for the Second Circuit is available here and her Judiciary questionnaire from that hearing is available in two parts: here and here.

The transcript of her confirmation hearing for the Southern District of New York is available here and her Judiciary questionnaire from that hearing is available in two parts: here and here.

So far, I must admit I find myself unexcited by Judge Sotomayor, pro or con. Her criminal law positions (particularly her Fourth Amendment views) seem a bit too pro-government for my tastes - perhaps even more so than David Souter, who she would replace.

I'd personally hoped Obama would look outside the federal appellate courts for a nominee: The current members of SCOTUS all basically have the same bio, and Sotomayor's life experience as a Latina from Brooklyn hardly trumps her life experience at Princeton, Yale, and as a functionary in the federal courts. That background has a lot more to do with shaping one's judicial perspective than how somebody spent their childhood.

My sense, though, is that Sotomayor will be easily confirmed. Indeed, her nomination appears to be less about influencing the court than avoiding a brawl in the Senate that might spill over into the coming health care battle. Color me uninspired.

UPDATE (6/8): For the most sustained, substantive critique of Sotomayor I've seen from a conservative perspective see NRO's Bench Memos (just scroll down, there's a lot, with plenty of links to other critics). You'll also find there an interesting discussion of the the merits of anonymous blogging after one of Bench Memo's contributors outed of a South Texas Law School professor blogging pseudonymously at Obsidian Wings about the Sotomayor nomination, a blawgosphere imbroglio chronicled this morning over at Simple Justice.