Sotomayor Day 3: A Series of Sneaks

Andrew M. Grossman / July 15, 2009

Again, we present a quick wrap up of the day’s events.

Perhaps the most significant nomination-related news didn’t come from the hearings but from the pages of the Washington Times. In an op-ed this morning, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA let loose on Judge Sotomayor’s anti-gun bias. She and colleagues on the Second Circuit ruled against Second Amendment rights in two cases, one of which, Maloney, is now being appealed to the Supreme Court, where Sotomayor may soon sit.

Or not—LaPierre says those decisions “raise serious questions about her fitness to serve on the highest court in the land,” and when the NRA speaks, legislators listen. The big question now is whether the group will include the Sotomayor vote on its legislative scorecard. If so, even some Democrats would face a tough choice: rejecting the President’s nominee versus making themselves targets for challenges by pro-gun candidates.

So far, the group’s kept mum on its decision, and may still be mulling the matter. But after today, there’s not much left for mulling. Judge Sotomayor gave a tortured reading of the High Court’s incorporation analysis—which determines when a constitutional right applies to the states—claiming that when the Court decides there is incorporation, the right becomes fundamental. But in reality, that’s perfectly backwards: the 14th Amendment incorporates already-fundamental rights. And as Senator Tom Coburn pointed out, lots of historical evidence shows that the Second Amendment was foremost among the fundamentals at the time of Reconstruction, when the 14th Amendment was ratified. (more…)