{"id":199,"date":"2009-07-16T11:44:24","date_gmt":"2009-07-16T11:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html"},"modified":"2009-07-16T11:44:24","modified_gmt":"2009-07-16T11:44:24","slug":"sotomayor-clearly-qualified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html","title":{"rendered":"Sotomayor: Clearly Qualified"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let me try to figure out your position on what Judge Sonia Sotomayor has said about a couple of issues. I have a few questions.<\/p>\n<p>First, you noted in your last post that she said that <i>Roe v. Wade<\/i> was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/07\/15\/us\/politics\/15abortion.html\">&#8220;settled law.&#8221;<\/a>&nbsp; Is this a bad thing? I thought conservatives were supposed to like the doctrine of stare decisis, the idea that absent extraordinarily compelling reasons, the Supreme Court does not overturn the basic reasoning of earlier cases &#8212; that precedent matters.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>As you know, <i>Roe<\/i> didn&#8217;t resolve all the questions regarding access to abortion or there would not have been a half dozen major subsequent cases on reproductive choice at the Supreme Court since that decision.&nbsp; If the judge had said &#8220;Roe is ripe for reopening,&#8221; would&nbsp;you have said, &#8220;she had no respect for precedent and believes in judicial activism&#8221;?&nbsp; Or with your strong&nbsp;anti-abortion beliefs, would you have said, &#8220;I applaud her willingness to re-open matters which were resolved in a way I didn&#8217;t like in the first place&#8221;? <\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Second, why are you fearful of &#8220;empathy&#8221;?&nbsp; Some Senate Republicans seem to equate it with &#8220;prejudice,&#8221; a stretch of the language beyond recognition.&nbsp; I assume you wouldn&#8217;t go that far.&nbsp; &#8220;Empathy&#8221; is simply the capacity to feel the experiences of others.&nbsp; It is not even &#8220;sympathy,&#8221; which generally means you want to change the conditions of others.&nbsp; Do you believe that Justice Thomas has no &#8220;empathy&#8221; but that this is a good thing for a Supreme Court justice?<\/p>\n<p>Third, you continue to say you want the Senate to learn her views on &#8220;important constitutional&nbsp;protections.&#8221;&nbsp; So why don&#8217;t you ask the folks you know to ask questions about issues other than guns and abortion?&nbsp; Specifically, where are the religious liberty questions?&nbsp; (So far, only <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/07\/15\/AR2009071503237.html\">Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin<\/a> has even broached the topic.)&nbsp; Curiously, even our mutual friend, Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention <a href=\"http:\/\/erlc.com\/documents\/pdf\/20090714-Ltr-leahy-sessions-sotomayor.pdf\">came out against Judge Sotomayor<\/a> because of her positions on guns and property rights but not because of anything she said about religion.&nbsp; Isn&#8217;t this odd?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"3\"><font color=\"#000000\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\"><font color=\"#000000\" size=\"3\" face=\"Times New Roman\"><span><span><font size=\"5\" face=\"Times New Roman\">To subscribe to &#8220;Lynn v. Sekulow&#8221; click <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2290560\"><font size=\"5\" face=\"Times New Roman\">here<\/font><\/a><font face=\"Times New Roman\">.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me try to figure out your position on what Judge Sonia Sotomayor has said about a couple of issues. I have a few questions. First, you noted in your last post that she said that Roe v. Wade was &#8220;settled law.&#8221;&nbsp; Is this a bad thing? I thought conservatives were supposed to like the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[384,51,67,211,210,213,209,157,212,203],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supreme-court","tag-abortion","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-richard-land","tag-roe-v-wade","tag-sen-ben-cardin","tag-senate-confirmation-heartings","tag-sonia-sotomayor","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-the-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sotomayor: Clearly Qualified - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sotomayor: Clearly Qualified - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let me try to figure out your position on what Judge Sonia Sotomayor has said about a couple of issues. I have a few questions. First, you noted in your last post that she said that Roe v. Wade was &#8220;settled law.&#8221;&nbsp; Is this a bad thing? I thought conservatives were supposed to like the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-16T11:44:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sotomayor: Clearly Qualified - Lynn v. Sekulow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sotomayor: Clearly Qualified - Lynn v. Sekulow","og_description":"Let me try to figure out your position on what Judge Sonia Sotomayor has said about a couple of issues. I have a few questions. First, you noted in your last post that she said that Roe v. Wade was &#8220;settled law.&#8221;&nbsp; Is this a bad thing? I thought conservatives were supposed to like the&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2009-07-16T11:44:24+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/sotomayor-clearly-qualified.html","name":"Sotomayor: Clearly Qualified - Lynn v. 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Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}