Associate Dean Amar Comments on Sotomayor Hearings for L.A. Times
Associate Dean Vikram Amar commented on the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings regarding the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for a news article in the Los Angeles Times and also contributed a series of blog entries on the hearings for "Opinion L.A.", a feature of Times website.
In the news article, Associate Dean Amar joined several other legal experts in expressing disappointment at the lack of substance in the proceedings. "If [the Senate and nominee can't] meaningfully discuss any legal topics in front of the Senate, then what's the point of the hearings?" he said.
In the concluding installment of his blog entries, Associate Dean Amar suggested that the hearings were a missed opportunity to educate the public about the Court and its role. "It insults the intelligence of lawyers and non-lawyers alike for the Republicans to insist that federal judges ought not to make policy, and for the Democrats to insist that Judge Sotomayor hasn't made and won't make policy," he wrote. "What we all should be talking about are the ways in which legitimate judge-made policy differs from the kinds of policy decisions elected legislators and presidents fashion."
Vikram Amar, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law with the UC Davis School of Law, is a national authority in the fields of constitutional law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and remedies. His biweekly column for FindLaw.com, the leading provider of online legal information, centers on his expertise in constitutional law.