Sotomayor Failed to Disclose Her Opinion to the Judicial Committee That She Feels the Death Penalty is “Racist”

  When the president’s Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, filled out her required questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee she conveniently forgot to disclose a memo that she wrote in which she called the death penalty “racist.”

  The question here is not whether or not you agree or disagree with the death penalty. The question here is not even whether you agree or disagree with the her statement that the death penalty is racist. The question is, did she violate her obligation of full disclosure to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The answer seems obvious to me. Yes.

Question 12(b) requires a nominee to “(s)upply four (4) copies of any reports, memoranda, or policy statements you prepared or contributed to the preparation of on behalf of any bar association, committee, conference, or organization of which you were or are a member or in which you have participated.”

  Question 12(b) requires the nominee to release all memos that were written about policy. She has clearly violated question 12(b) in the questionnaire.

It is . . . clear that (Sotomayor) has omitted controversial material from her past in which she asserts that ‘[c]apital punishment is associated with evident racism in our society’ and advocated public opposition to restoring the death penalty in New York state,

  The next question is why did she find it necessary to try to hide her position on the death penalty?

  Already facing charges that she is a racist and is a proponent of racial preferances  racial quotas, and identity politics  it seems that she was unwilling to throw gas on the fire. Rather than disclosing further evidence that she may be a racist and giving Republicans another issue that can be used against her, she decided that she would take her chances and hope that this memo would not be discovered.

  Having answered those questions the last question should be, does her dishonest dealing with the Senate Judiciary Committee disqualify her for the Supreme Court? I suppose that that is a question that the Senate Judiciary Committee will ultimately have to answer.

  My answer to that question is probably. At best this indiscretion and attempt to sidetrack the committee should bring her under more scrutiny at her confirmation hearing than we originally thought she would be.

  When she was first nominated for the Supreme Court it seemed as though she would breeze through her hearing. Now we have a few examples of her opinions and they should be enough to have the senate take a hard look at her positions.

  Republican can not just roll over on this nominee. In the end she will be confirmed but Republicans have a responsibility to make sure the American people learn all of Sonia Sotomayor’s opinions on America’s policies.

  We deserve that much at least. If we can not trust her to disclose her opinions honestly before she is confirmed we can not trust her to uphold the constitution after she is confirmed.