SC Social Conservatives Reject Obama’s Court Choice

In another of our “Captain Obvious” headlines, South Carolina’s most vocal social conservative group is opposing President Barack Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sonia Sotomayor – who was nominated yesterday by Obama to fill the seat being vacated by David Souter – is just another liberal activist, they say.

“In choosing Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court of the United States, President Obama has chosen someone like himself: a hugely positive symbol with huge substance concerns,” Palmetto Family Council President Oran Smith said in a statement released yesterday. “Judge Sotomayor’s judicial record and writing clearly show she believes a court is not an applyer (sic) of law written by elected representatives, but just another political advocate for social change.”

Not surprisingly, that was also the message coming from social conservatives’ favorite 2008 GOP presidential candiate.

“The appointment of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama’s campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric,” said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Sotomayer supporters – who already have a TV ad up touting their candidate – point to the fact that she was nominated by Republican George H.W. Bush.

Meanwhile, up in D.C., “Republicans” were plotting strategy in the wake of the selection of Sotomayer – who obviously wasn’t the woman they expected Obama to pick. Elaine Kagan and Diane Wood were the two liberal lionesses that GOP strategists had their guns trained on, and it’s safe to say either one of them would have made a much easier target.

But that leads to the real question here – do “Republicans” have the firepower to fight any Obama nominee? Whoever he or she may be?

The acephalous GOP is still reeling from its election defeat six months ago. And with only 39 votes in the Senate, it remains to be seen what sort of opposition it can muster against a popular President’s politically-correct pick.

Oddly enough, Sotomayer herself may have given them some ammo by suggesting in the past that her Latino heritage was something that would help guide her decisions. That’s fine for an elected official to say, we suppose, but it’s a big “no-no” for Justices who are supposed to be blind to everything but the merits of the case.

“To use a phrase from her beloved sport (she is a lifelong New York Yankees fan), Justice Sotomayor will have problems as a Supreme Court justice being content to fulfill her only duty there: calling balls and strikes,” Smith said.

Comments