Welcome to the supreme court, girlfriend.

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This week, all eyes are on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the Senate confirmation hearings rule the media (and not just sleep-inducing C-SPAN, for once). This is a historic time for the United States, as Sotomayor may become the first Hispanic and only the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

But what do we know about this woman?

To help you stay informed, we’ve filtered through the media’s deluge of reports on Sotomayor and have compiled this handy fact sheet, summarizing her rulings and positions on some important issues:

On affirmative action

The Verdict: Supports it

Sotomayor ruled to uphold a lower court’s decision that found in favor of affirmative action in the New Haven, CT fire department. In an earlier case, Gant v. Wallingford Board of Education, Sotomayor dissented from the decision, finding that racial discrimination had occurred when a black student was demoted from the first grade to kindergarten.

On strip searches

The Verdict: Against them

In a 2004 case that upheld the legality of strip searches of girls at juvenile detention centers in CT, Sotomayor wrote a dissent emphasizing the intrusive and humiliating nature of strip searches. Sotomayor made similar points in a dissent to the decision in a case concerning the strip search of a 13 year-old middle school student in Arizona.

On abortion

The Verdict: Position unclear

Sotomayor has heard few cases involving abortion, so her position is unclear. In one case, she denied a claim by an abortion rights group that sought to challenge an anti-abortion Bush policy. However, she has said that she considers the issue of abortion rights to be “settled law” and believes that there is a constitutional right to privacy.

On gun/weapon control

The Verdict: Supports it

Sotomayor denied a claim by a New York man that his state’s ban on a martial arts weapon violated his Second Amendment rights. She explained that the Second Amendment only applies to the federal government; he had a case only if it had been the federal government banning the weapon. Sotomayor has also agreed with the notion that the right to possess a gun is not a fundamental right.

On the environment

The Verdict: Supports environmental protection efforts

Sotomayor ruled that the EPA could not use cost-benefit calculations in deciding whether to require power plants to change to eco-friendly practices. Essentially, the EPA cannot weigh cost as a factor in the protection of aquatic life from nearby power plants.

What would her confirmation mean for the Supreme Court?
Despite the old Republican talking point, Sotomayor is not expected to be an activist judge or lean to one end of the political spectrum completely, even if many of her positions are considered liberal. Both liberals and conservatives support her, and it should be noted that she was nominated to be a federal district judge by Republican President George H. W. Bush. Many pundits expect her to be almost exactly in-line with Justice David Souter, whom she was nominated to replace. Souter’s record shows a tendency to vote with the the liberal bloc, even though he was nominated as a conservative.

When Sotomayor was nominated to the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1997, she had this to say on the role of the court: “I don’t believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.”

So now you’ve got all the facts.
What do you think about Sotomayor?

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For the last ten years of her life, Ledbetter has fought for equal pay rights in the work place for women. After experiencing pay-based discrimination because of her sex (and learning about it through anonymous letters in her work mailbox), Ledbetter filed a complaint of gender discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Making a long story short (however, you should read the whole story over at CNN), President Obama stepped in and signed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Restoration Act this past week making the fight for women’s rights and equality better upheld through the law.

While I feel gratitude for Ledbetter’s ongoing battle with the Supreme Court and Congress to pass this act that will give women the rights they warrant and money that is rightfully theirs, I know that work is still left to be done.

It may seem hard to believe, but to this day, full-time working women get paid “on average, only 77 cents for each dollar full-time working men get paid,” according to the Wage Project. This happens in every occupation across the nation, and while it impacts women in different ways, the reality of it is that hardworking women with outstanding college degrees lose money in their pockets simply because of their sex.

Think about it. Imagine working at the same place, doing the same job as a man (who has the same degree and amount of experience as you), putting in the same hours, only to find out he is, in fact, making more money than you on an annual basis. How is that fair? It’s not, at all.

But it is reality.

Amazing women across the nation have been fighting for women’s rights for equal pay for decades now. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act (EPA) was signed by John F. Kennedy in hopes to help stop the divide within the work place. While it drew attention to issues involving work discrimination because of sex, it did not necessarily revolutionize the issue over night. Nearly 50 years ago, when the EPA was signed, women were only making 55 cents to the male dollar. In the last four and a half decades, only 22 more cents have gone into making up for those earnings.

As a young woman about to enter the workplace after college, I am outraged to know that I won’t make what my fellow male peers will. However, while it is scary to know that such discrimination still exists, I do feel some relief knowing that laws are out there to protect us, and a President looking out for us, too.

And Now the News with Kandy Korrespondent

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of ending the death penalty for the crime of child rape. This is the second such ruling this year. Last September an unofficial national moratorium on the death penalty went into effect when the court agreed to hear two appeals to lethal injection arguing that the practice causes extreme pain constituting cruel and unusual punishment. The moratorium was ended when the court finally ruled on April 16th that Kentucky’s, the state in question, guidelines for lethal injection did not in fact constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The death penalty tends to be considered a “third-rail” issue along the lines of abortion. The sudden willingness of the highest court to rule on such cases seems to mark a shift in this regard. Anti-death penalty activists are hopeful that this current trend will end in an eventual ban on its usage. The United States is one of the few “western” countries to still use the death penalty.

In Other News:

Also on Wednesday, during a phone-in town hall meeting Presidential hopeful John McCain told a Floridian voter that only World War III would justify reinstituting a national draft. While this calms some fears, the fact that he failed to define World War III of course still leaves the issue a bit open to interpretation. Given the current ambiguous nature of the so-called “War on Terror”, it is unclear at what point a conflict would in fact obtain such a label.

On Tuesday, Senator Clinton officially returned to the Senate after her unsuccessful presidential bid. She was greeted with tearful hugs amid a pair of standing ovations. Afterward she reemphasized the need for a united party going into the November election, stating, “If you care about the issues I care about … you really have to stay with us in the Democratic Party and vote for Senator Obama”.

Zimbabwe ruled on Wednesday that the June 27th presidential vote will go on despite the opposition candidate’s withdrawal and subsequent international condemnation. The US warned on Tuesday that it would not recognize the results of the election. (this writer fails to see how such a statement will in any way impact Mugabe but that’s neither here nor there)

And Now For Something Completely Different:

For those of you who always forget to charge your phone prior to attending music festivals (all ten of you!) your worries are at an end! The UK phone operator “Orange” has teamed up with GotWind, a renewable energy firm, to produce a special phone recharger powered by “dance energy”. Simply attach it to your arm and presto… apparently.

They plan on testing out at this year’s Glastonbury Festival—good luck guys!

That’s the News.

[photo courtesy of javno.com]

According to CNN, “Joseph Frederick, then 18, unveiled the 14-foot paper sign on a public sidewalk outside his Juneau, Alaska, high school. Principal Deborah Morse confiscated it and later suspended the young man.”

The article continues:

“The incident occurred in January 2002 just outside school grounds when the Olympic torch relay was moving through the Alaska capital on its way to the Salt Lake City, Utah, Winter Games”.

“Though he was standing on a public sidewalk, the school argues Frederick was part of a school-sanctioned event, because students were let out of classes and accompanied by their teachers.

“Morse ordered the senior to take down the sign, but he refused. That led to a 10-day suspension for violating a school policy on promoting illegal drug use”.

Sounds to me like the principal and the school board oughta load one up and pass it around. Amiright?

Read the article.

http://www.joemanna.com