| BOSTON -- Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas questioned Judge Sonia Sotomayor this morning about the views expressed in a 1996 Suffolk University Law Review article she co-authored. The article, “Returning Majesty to the Law and Politics: A Modern Approach,” says that the law “is uncertain and responds to changing circumstances.”
“You wrote what appears to be an endorsement of the idea that judges should change the law,” Cornyn told the Supreme Court nominee during the third day of Senate confirmation hearings in Washington. Cornyn asked Sotomayor if she believes that judges ever change the law.
“They can’t change law,” Sotomayor responded. “We’re not lawmakers.” But, she said that judges do change their views on how to interpret certain laws based on new facts and other factors.
The article in the Suffolk University Law Review that was adapted from a 1996 lecture to Suffolk Law students. Nicole A. Gordon is the co-author.
###
The following Suffolk University Law professors are available to share their expertise on the Sotomayor Supreme Court confirmation hearings:
• Robert Smith teaches Constitutional Law, Mediation, Supreme Court Seminar and Clinical Teaching. He also served as dean of the Law School from 1999 to 2007. Smith is the author of “Justice Souter Joins the Rehnquist Court: An Empirical Study of Supreme Court Voting patterns,” 41 KANSAS L. REV. 11 (1992). Among Smith’s professional affiliations is the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
• Michael Avery teaches Constitutional Law, Individual Rights, Evidence and Scientific Evidence. Avery is the author of We Dissent: Talking Back to the Rehnquist Court.As a civil rights lawyer, Avery sees a conservative orientation in Sonia Sotomayor. He has reviewed 100 Sotomayor cases having to do with civil rights and observed that in most instances she ruled in favor of government entities. Avery has served as president of the National Lawyers Guild; board member and general counsel of the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts; chairperson of the Civil Liberties Committee, National Lawyers Guild; and national council member of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee.
• Victoria Dodd teaches Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Education Law and Federal Courts. Among her publications are “The 2007 Roberts Court Education Law Cases: Reaffirmation or Cut-Back of Student Rights?” 42 SUFFOLK L. REV. 61 (2008) and “The Education Justice: The Honorable Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr.,” 29 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 683 (2001).
For more information, please contact: Greg Gatlin at 617/573-8428; ggatlin@suffolk.edu or Mariellen Norris at 617/573-8450; mnorris@suffolk.edu |
Library 
