THE JUDGE - AT 7:19 A.M. ET:  As we said here yesterday, President Obama's selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the United States Supreme Court has an almost certain chance of making it through Senate confirmation, as Republicans will be very reluctant to challenge this "first."  But that doesn't mean the debate will be mild.  Already there are serious questions about the judge, her record, and her approach to the law.

Silvio Canto Jr., on whose radio show I'm privileged to appear, gives one perspective, that of a conservative Hispanic-American:

Sonia Sotomayor is a lot more than a liberal. She has a reputation for judicial activism, or empathy as they call it these days!

We don't like judicial activists. They betray the US Constitution.

In my view, judicial activists should take off their robes and run for the legislature.

Let's say it again: Judges don't make law. Legislators make laws and judges interpret them.

Let's give Sotomayor a chance to get to the confirmation hearings.

Let's treat with respect.

Let's avoid the immaturity that the Dems exhibited during the Roberts and Alito hearings a few years ago.

Last, but not least, let's hope that Senator Sessions and Senator Cornyn, two of our best legal minds, ask her some probing questions.

And...

This is what scares me most about Sotomayor and modern liberals. They want to use the courts to get what they can't get through the ballot box.

COMMENT:  In scouring the press this morning, I find that concern expressed over and over.  Now, I have no problem with judges understanding the consequences of their decisions.  But those consequences, including painful ones, may be inevitable in light of what the law requires.  The remedy, as Mr. Canto points out, is in state legislatures, or, if a federal question, in Congress.

I suspect that this issue of the legitimate role of the judge will be the focus of
Republican attention.  But I don't think it will stop Judge Sotomayor.

May 27, 2009