May 27, 2009

Her defenders (and less-severe critics) do make some interesting points about a judge whose friend, Yale lawprof Stephen Carter, calls her a "moderate, with liberal leanings" but not a "firebrand on a mission":

• Alarms over Dabit v. Merrill Lynch notwithstanding, Paul Karlsgodt at Class Action Watch finds Sotomayor's rulings in class action and securities cases mostly unexceptional (more here). Jonathan Adler summarizes what he's found, good and bad.
• Conservative California lawyer-blogger Patterico says the nominee, a former prosecutor, "appears to be OK on criminal law issues".
• And at Volokh Conspiracy, libertarians David Bernstein and Ilya Somin have good words for rulings by the judge on public-employee discipline for off-job racist speech and seizure of the vehicles of persons charged with DUI.

More: Daniel Hemel defends Sotomayor's record on the Didden v. Village of Port Chester condemnation case, earlier criticized by Richard Epstein and Ilya Somin (& welcome Prof. Bainbridge readers).