The Sotomayor Hearings — What We Can Agree On?

Here is something that we can all agree on. Maybe. Over at PrawfsBlawg, Howard Wasserman of Florida International says that the Sotomayor hearings have been “inane and meaningless.” This has been a widely shared reaction among liberal legal academics and lawyers. They are disappointed in (even if they are willing to excuse) her retreat into a caricature of judicial restraint. They are put off (even if they are willing to rationalize) the fog of platitudes and non sequiturs with which she has responded to questions.

Here’s an example. Our own Senator Feingold asked her what the test is for incorporating provisions of the Bill of Rights into the Fourteenth Amendment: 

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Politics as Total War

A few years ago, a Department of Defense official called for a boycott of tony law firms that represented — on a pro bono basis — Guantanamo detainees. He was roundly — and I think justly — criticized.

But his view of politics as total war — something to be imported into nonpolitical walks of life — seems to be gaining currency. Earlier this year, One Wisconsin Now organized a phone campaign in which it urged its supporters to call and complain to a large local law firm about the pro bono work of one of its young associates. This young woman was apparently donating her time in support of Wisconsin’s marriage amendment. The objective was to use a law firm’s natural desire to avoid controversy and her economic vulnerability to shut her up and deny a party the legal representation of its choice.

Paul Soglin’s WMC Watch and full-court press for disclosure of donors to political conduits is concerned, at least in part, with a desire to place pressure on businesses that don’t behave politically in much the way that Epic Systems forced a contractor off WMC’s board.

Is there something wrong with this? Shouldn’t we all vote with our pocketbooks? Isn’t the personal political? 

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