Daily Beast: One Tough Judge

Sonia Sotomayor built a reputation (and made a lot of enemies) by driving prosecutors nuts. Now, the questions begin about her religion and her mysterious views on abortion.

Salon: Sotomayor - The Triumph of Empathy

President Obama and his team got what they wanted, a different kind of American story: Another woman to make the Supreme Court feel less like a boys’ club, a Hispanic and, most of all, someone with an inspiring story, a rags-to-riches tale who will make the public empathize with her as much as she’ll empathize with those who come before her, a quality Obama had said he’d been seeking.

The New Republic: The Case Against Sotomayor

Jeffrey Rosen wrote before the announcement: “Over the past few weeks, I’ve been talking to a range of people who have worked with her... The most consistent concern was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was “not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench.”

Power Line Blog: Che Guevara in Robes?

That’s how a friend of mine refers to Sonia Sotomayor. He’s joking, I think. For a more balanced assessment, here is the lawyers’ evaluation of Judge Sotomayor from the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, which on balance depicts a competent but not highly distinguished very liberal rather unpleasant jurist.

Daily Kos: 3 cheers for Bronx homegirl Sonia Sotomayor

Okay folks. I’m biased. She’s a Boricua (Puerto Rican), from Da Bronx. She grew up in the projects. Anyone who knows the projects and the daily lives of po’ folks in the Big Mango (aka the Big Apple) gets a gold star in my book. She is really smart. Saavy. Gutsy. Has a sense of humor.

New York Times: What’s a Liberal Justice Now?

Obama’s ideological elusiveness has perplexed liberal and conservative court watchers alike. Critics may see his ambiguity as just another example of his instincts to swaddle ideological divisions in the soothing rhetoric of bipartisanship and compromise... Obama, however, may be looking to synthesize and transcend the established legal categories — articulating a genuinely new vision for what it means to be a liberal justice in the 21st century.

Wall Street Journal: Pre-Gaming the Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings

We don’t envy Sotomayor’s having to go through Senate confirmation hearings which can be brutal. (See, e.g., Bork, Thomas, Alito). To find out how the Senate confirmation hearings might play out for Sotomayor, the Journal checked in with Arthur Hellman an expert on the federal judiciary at the University of Pittsburgh Law School of Law and author of two casebooks— one on Federal Courts and the other on the First Amendment.

Associated Press: For Sotomayor, Reverse Discrimination Case a Likely Issue

When an important reverse discrimination case came before federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor last year, she and two other judges issued an unusually brief decision that went against white firefighters. New Have, Conn. officials had thrown out a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results. Following their decision supporting the city, Sotomayor and her two fellow judges faced criticism for declining to issue a detailed ruling.

New York Law Journal: Sotomayor Is Pragmatic, Empathetic Lawyers Say

Lawyers who have appeared before Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who is on the short list of candidates being considered for an upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, described her as an aggressive questioner who comes to the bench prepared and, although she is regarded as a member of the more liberal wing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a pragmatist who would bring a different perspective to the high court.