Today, in nominating Circuit Court judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, President Obama discussed a few qualities he seeks in a justice. The “first and foremost” — a rigorous intellect — is obvious. The third — “a common touch and sense of compassion” — has been a key messaging point for the last few weeks.
But the second I thought was interesting: “a recognition of the limits of the judicial role, an understanding that a judge’s job is to interpret, not make, law.”
How many times did we hear President Bush say the same thing over the course of eight years? It was a point included in almost every campaign speech (’02, ‘04, and ‘06). A signal of conservatism to conservative voters, but rooted in common-sense language that appealed to moderates.
President Obama has a knack for appropriating conservative rhetoric to advance his ends — from tax policy (tax cuts for 95% of working families) to closing Guantanamo (it will make us safer). Now, in anticipation of a conservative campaign to portray Judge Sotomayor as a liberal activist (I don’t know whether she is or not), the president has once again gone to the conservative well.
I’m sure part of President Obama’s use of Bush-era verbiage is rooted in genuine agreement. After all, which president would invite more judicial scrutiny? But I also suspect President Obama has a more expansive view of “the judicial role” and what it means to “interpret” law than President Bush did.
The president’s entire discussion of Judge Sotomayor’s background — from her hardscrabble roots, to her tenure as a New York City prosecutor, to her first judicial appointment by a Republican president, to her efforts to “save baseball” when called upon to rule on MLB labor negotiations — was designed to present her as someone who is deeply and personally in touch with core American values.
Confident that the judge’s opinion-record and the historic fact of her nomination (as the first Hispanic person to be offered for the Court) will guarantee her good treatment from the left, the president today wove a conservative narrative around Judge Sotomayor that should help her appeal to middle America and the center-right.
One more example of President Obama’s uncanny ability to speak the language of his opponents.
