Surprises on the Supreme Court
President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday. His pick is a New York Puerto Rican who is generally considered left-leaning. But once a judge is actually on the court, there’s no way of knowing how they will rule. FDR hated Felix Frankfurter’s love of judicial restraint. And David Souter, whose seat Sonia Sotomayor is nominated to fill, surprised George H.W. Bush, the president who nominated him, by becoming one of the more liberal justices. Joining us to discuss how Supreme Court justices develop their view is Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman, who once clerked for Justice Souter, and John Schwartz, the legal correspondent for The New York Times.
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