In the wake of Tom Tancredo's outlandish statement that Sotomayor is a member of the "Latino KKK" (aka National Council of La Raza), the media will have an easy time dismissing concerns about Sotomayor's association with the group as right-wing moonbattery. But a TWS friend points out that the New York Times and Washington Post were very very concerned about John Roberts's and Samuel Alito's association with the nefarious Federalist Society:
You may recall that back in 2005, the press and the pundits obsessed over whether John Roberts had been a member of the Federalist Society. There was the Washington Post (here, here, and here) and the New York Times (here and here), of course. The Democratic Party eagerly pushed such inquiries. (And, of course, we went through the same thing with the Alito nomination.)
In short, the New York Times spoke for many when it asserted that a full airing of Roberts's views necessarily included "questions about Mr. Roberts's role with the Federalist Society, and the confusion about it, should lead to a broader discussion of who he is, and how he views the law."
In light of those inquiries, should we expect a full airing of Sonia Sotomayor's affiliation with the National Council of La Raza?
Given Sotomayor's widely-published remarks on the role of her Latina heritage in her judicial decisionmaking -- and of course, her infamous "wise Latina judge" comments were made at a La Raza event and were published in a La Raza law journal -- will the Sotomayor confirmation process involve "questions about" Judge Sotomayor's "role with" La Raza?
Won't such questions "lead to a broader discussion of who [she] is, and how [she] views the law"?
