Yale Daily News

Does Sotomayor realize how easy she had it compared to Justice Thomas, Justice Alito or, obviously, Judge Bork?

To 'Recent Alum'... indeed. It's appalling how impeccable credentials, the lack of scandal, two Ivy League degrees, and years of experience on a federal court can buy you a smooth senate confirmation. Scandalous.

I am confused by how you have included direct quotations from the justice, considering the event was closed to press. Do you have any way of verifying the information in the article byond the few people you talked to?As someone who attended the talk, some of what you reported struck me as a misrepresentation of what she said.

To Tenured Yale Full Prof, one would think that a person of such experience as Sotomayar, would have by now stated her stand on abortion..huh..you think?

#2: Well, Justice Alito certainly had "impeccable credentials", "two Ivy League degrees" (the same as Sotomayor's) and "years of experience on a federal court," so I guess it comes down to scandal.

Alito was an (inactive) member of Concerned Alumni of Princeton, and ANOTHER member of CAP had written something that offended feminists! That's a scandal!! By contrast, Sotomayor suggesting that her racial background affects her decisionmaking = not a scandal. Also, Sotomayor's contemptible handling of Ricci (as thoroughly exposed by Judge Cabranes) = not a scandal. Oh, I see how this works.

I am horrified, though not surprised, to see that even Yale's own newspaper couldn't respect the off-the-record aspect of the conversation. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves, both for the poor reporting and the failure to respect a completely understandable condition from someone within our own community.

Justice SS makes Yale proud. It was a fantastic talk, although I wish Professor Stith had had time to ask her more about her first impressions of the Supreme Court.

The idea of calling a talk before 1800 people (if there were that many) an "off the record" event strikes me as a little silly.

How can you report on an event that was closed to the press?

Why? Roberts and Alito haven't, even though we know where they stand.

Why would she bother to state her stance on abortion. There's no litmus test for selection after all, as every president makes clear. Whether we do or do not know somebody's stance on this one issue is surely immaterial then.

to #2- Oh yes, years and years of scandal free experience, no political baggage, no evidence of favoritism, nepotism or racial bias in her career, and absolutely earth shattering decisions that changed the judical landscape. Never mind the personal connections to "civic" organizations in New York that are so above reproach! Truly scandalous indeed!

Yale Daily News is more like a "school paper" than mainstream press, and as such, entitles them to report on university relate matters and activities. It's not a big deal.

Someone mentioned Justice Thomas up there and how tough it was for him and Alito and Bork to go through the process. Thomas was found to have committed sexual harrassment in the work place. I wouldn't be surprised if he still making inappropriate remarks and jokes in his office, to be honest with you. Clarence Thomas is also unqualified to be a Supreme Court judge. Has anyone heard or read any of his opinions? Nobody. It's because they were unremarkable and simply not impressive.

I agree with yls. It is ridiculous that the YDN could not respect a simple request to keep the conversation off the record. This article purports to include direct quotes from Justice Sotomayor, yet it seems to rely on a few accounts from attendees. What kind of reporting is this?

why hasn't anyone brought up Harriet Miers? Does SS REALIZE how EASY she had it comparison?

Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayer has arrived in New Haven to babble and pick up two checks. One from Yale payroll dept. and one from the City of New Haven.
Thank you very much, and she'll see you cabrones in court

Did she have time to talk to the New Haven firefighters?

Agreed with yls and Y10. No public officials should ever have their statements or actions reported if they don't want them to be, or if a third party has declared them "off the record" -- a right of the shy public official, not a privilege granted by the reporter.

I attended the Sotomayor conversation, and must say the same thing:

This was supposed to be off the record. There's a reason for this. The fact that the conversation was to be off-the-record should have allowed her to be more frank, more honest. With the press reporting - YDN certainly is the press - on the conversation, it makes Sotomayor unable to be frank.

This newspaper is just an unbelievable showing of poor article selection (editorials about nothing, see the article on "beauty and justice", and articles about ridiculous topics, see the article about a gay guy soliciting sex on Craiglist). Make the YDN reputable, and put only all the news that's fit to print.

All I can say is SS does nothing for me as a "latina woman", whatever that means. She does not represent me (even though I am Cuban)! With that being said, I am neither excited nor dissapointed in her new occupation since I do not believe a woman (latina women) can make better decisions than a white man.

Harriet Miers was a moron with no qualifications. Even most of the Right realized this right away, which is why they attacked the pick almost as much as the Left did.

A woman of sub-par intellect, an ethnic appointment. What's to be proud of? Her attempt to submarine the Ricci v. DeStefano case was an utter disgrace, as was her choice to allow Mayor DeStefano to attend her White House confirmation party, which displayed a shocking disregard for how that would look to lawyers and litigants. It fueled the sense of many that the entire process of deciding that case was corrupt. Her conduct not only should have disqualified her from elevation to the Supreme Court but gotten her shunned in decent society. While she was in New Haven, she should have stopped by one of the city's firehouses to see just what kind of racial strife and damage she caused, damage that is irreversible.