Sisyphus Shrugged, By JMHM, May 29

The Times has taken up the burning question of Sonia Sotomayor's temperament:

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s Supreme Court choice, has a blunt and even testy side, and it was on display in December during an argument before the federal appeals court in New York. The case concerned a Canadian man who said American officials had sent him to Syria to be tortured, and Judge Sotomayor peppered a government lawyer with skeptical questions.

“So the minute the executive raises the specter of foreign policy, national security,” Judge Sotomayor asked the lawyer, Jonathan F. Cohn, “it is the government’s position that that is a license to torture anyone?”

Mr. Cohn managed to get out two and a half words: “No, your hon—— .”

Judge Sotomayor cut him off, then hit him with two more questions and a flat declaration of what she said was his position. The lawyer managed to say she was wrong, but could not clarify the point until the chief judge, Dennis G. Jacobs, stepped in, asking, “Why don’t we just get the position?”

To supporters, Judge Sotomayor’s vigorous questioning of the Bush administration’s position in the case of the Canadian, Maher Arar, showcases some of her strengths. She is known as a formidably intelligent judge with a prodigious memory who meticulously prepares for oral arguments and is not shy about grilling the lawyers who appear before her to ensure that she fully understands their arguments.

From what I can see, Judge Sotomayor (although I'm an unabashed fan of her life story) is not a clear win for the DFHs of the left. Considering that she got her current job from a Republican president, there's a case to be made that she's not a clear loss for the right.

In either case, it would be far easier to weigh the merits of the claims on both sides if people stopped talking nonsense.

Here's Media Matters' handling: Buchanan: "Sotomayor is a quota queen" who believes "equal justice takes a back seat to tribal justice"

Supreme Court litigator Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog writes of Sotomayor and race-related cases:

In sum, in an eleven-year career on the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor has participated in roughly 100 panel decisions involving questions of race and has disagreed with her colleagues in those cases (a fair measure of whether she is an outlier) a total of 4 times. Only one case (Gant) in that entire eleven years actually involved the question whether race discrimination may have occurred. (In another case (Pappas) she dissented to favor a white bigot.) She participated in two other panels rejecting district court rulings agreeing with race-based jury-selection claims. Given that record, it seems absurd to say that Judge Sotomayor allows race to infect her decisionmaking.

And, via the Huffington Post:

The Wall Street Journal has a nice article detailing how Sotomayor is well within the mainstream of Democratic judicial appointees, and that she doesn't adhere to strictures which always put her in opposition to business interests:

Her record in more than 4,000 cases, including those from 11 years on the Second Circuit, shows her occasional siding with corporate defendants or diverting from a standard liberal position...

..."There is no reason for the business community to be concerned" about Judge Sotomayor, said Lauren Rosenblum Goldman, a partner at Mayer Brown LLP who has represented businesses including Wachovia Corp. and Dow Chemical Co.

The White house is selling the nomination by noting that when she's been on courts with a republican nominated jurist, she votes with them 95% of the time. She's been supported by Rick Santorum and Jesse Helms.

Sotomayor Spin: Maddow and Dahlia Lithwick: Sotomayor has ruled in support of the abortion gag rule, and dissented in favor of legislative policy not being overridden by the courts.

Wall Street Journal, By Jess Bravin & Nathan Koppel, May 27

WASHINGTON -- Judge Sonia Sotomayor has built a record on such issues as civil rights and employment law that puts her within the mainstream of Democratic judicial appointees.

Among the cases she has heard during her 15 years on the federal bench -- and one that will be examined closely through her confirmation process -- is one now pending before the Supreme Court.

Judge Sotomayor was on a three-judge panel at the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a decision by the city of New Haven, Conn., to invalidate a firefighter promotional exam after no black applicants scored high enough to qualify. Those who aced the exam said it was unfair to penalize them because others didn't do as well.

"We are not unsympathetic to the plaintiffs' expression of frustration," the panel said in an unsigned opinion, referring to white firefighters who accused the city of reverse discrimination. "But it simply does not follow" that they have a claim under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

[...]

Judge Sotomayor isn't always a reliable vote for employees. In 1999, she ruled against a black nurse who claimed she had been fired from a New York hospital due to her race and age, as well as a debilitating injury. Judge Sotomayor ruled that the plaintiff, Wendy Norville, could move ahead on her disability claim, but tossed out the race and age claims.

"There was ample evidence that the hospital had accommodated white nurses with similar disabilities," said Glenn Greenwald, who represented Ms. Norville and is now a columnist for Salon.com. "She rather coldly dismissed what I thought were good claims."

Sotomayor Hearings: Who Is On The Senate Judiciary Committee

Here's a handy chart:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/interactives/wdc/sotomayor_judiciary/index.html