Giving Sotomayor the Benefit of the Doubt

Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor got underway today, and the partisan rhetoric was predictable. Democrats fawned over her and Republicans remained circumspect.

For conservatives, however, the issues surrounding Sotomayor all boil down to essentially two major areas of concern.

First, with no further aspirations of higher office, will her opinions on the High Court extend further into the arena of "policy" than they did during her tenure on the lower courts?

And second, will she be able to cast off the cloud of doubt that has encircled her among Republicans because of what they perceive to be her willingness to engage in identity politics?

While her opinions of record are not generally conservative, they're not over-the-top liberal, either. In most cases, Sotomayor has followed the law and in a few cases, she's even issued rulings that can be construed as conservative. Four of her last six decisions to reach the Supreme Court have been overturned, which would be discomfiting if it were not for the many previous decisions that never made it that far or were not reversed.

Today we'll learn whether it is what she has said in her speeches or what she has said in her rulings that guides her judicial philosophy. It is disturbing that her off-the-bench remarks seem so ideologically at odds with her on-the-bench opinions.

Nevertheless, I urge conservatives to listen to her answers today and as they contemplate them, give Sotomayor the benefit of the doubt. When the hearings are over, those answers will combine to form a picture of the kind of Justice she will make. Only when we step back and view the picture in its totality can an opinion be drawn and a decision be made.