The Tuesday Roundtable (May 26, 2009)

Well, another week has gone by and it is time for my Tuesday Roundtable. A lot has happened over the past week, especially today.

The big news in the United States is the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court by President Obama. It did not take long for some questionable comments to start appearing. She has a taped speech where she stated that the courts are a place for making policy. This is a very damaging comment since the Federal appellate courts are solely responsible for interpreting law based on the Constitution and no more. If a law is vague in nature, it is not the court who should clarify it. It should be sent back to the legislature for an amendment. This quote alone would push Judge Sotomayor into role of an activist judge.

To make matters worse, she also stated that a persons background based on race and gender plays a key role in making decisions. Race and gender have no place in the judicial process. We are all granted equal rights. The singling out of a specific class by the courts undermines these rights. I use this basis for my opinion on gay marriage. Nobody in our country should be excluded rights afforded to others. Marriage, in itself, is not a right afforded by the Constitution. However, I see the governments role in allowing a legal relationship or civil union as something that can be allowed.

We cannot look at Judge Sotomayor on a few public quotes alone. Her body of work will tell us how she will uphold the Constitution. She does not have a strong record when her cases have made it the the Supreme Court with most of the decisions being overturned.

I see the Sonia Sotomayor appointment making it through the Senate Judicial committee fairly quickly. However, the Senate needs to slow things down when it comes to the floor and have a fair debate. I do not like the idea of President Obama and Harry Reid pushing to get her nomination passed quickly. We see where the stimulus bill has gotten us.

Congress needs to thoroughly evaluate her credentials and legal responses for the public to see. The Republicans will hurt themselves if they treat the proceedings the same way the Democrats handled the Robert Bork hearings. However, an open discussion on Judge Sotomayor's background is needed. This is a lifetime appointment. We do not need a judge who thinks they can legislate from the bench outside of the elected politicians, especially from the US Supreme Court. These judges cannot be held accountable for their decisions by the voters.

In other news, the GM bondholders appear to be headed the same direction as the Chrysler bondholders, bankruptcy. This is a good thing. I completely disagree with the anger shown by many on the message boards saying the bondholders are a bunch of rich people who need to take their losses and move out of the way so the government can do as they please. The managers of these bond funds are representing the investors who poured their hard earned retirement money into these companies. What the bloggers fail to realize is that almost all of us own bonds in GM and Chrysler through our 401K and pension plans. It is not just the rich who are losing out. I applaud the bond fund managers for saying we should not have to settle for pennies on the dollar.

Lastly, Iran and North Korea are at it again. Both are defying all sanctions and calls for diplomacy to forge ahead with their nuclear capabilities. These are very dangerous countries with tyrannical leaders. We can only wait so long before we have to pass up on diplomacy for more extreme solutions. Allowing either of these countries to poses nuclear weapons will lead to the loss of innocent lives. I will go into this further in a blog by itself later this week.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day and remembered the fallen heroes in our military. They truly deserve the recognition.