Sotomayor: "Court of Appeals Is Where Policy Is Made" In Context (and More Important Resources Like SCOTUSblog's Summary of Sotomayor's Opinions)

The question asked during a panel discussion at Duke Law School in 2005: Where should a law school student clerk? District Court ("doing justice to the individual case" by examining the facts) or Court of Appeals ("always thinking about the ramifications of the ruling"). SCOTUS nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor's response in context in the below video clip.

SCOTUSblog is summarizing Judge Sotomayor's opinions in a multi-part series. First installment, Judge Sotomayor’s Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases, to be followed by a summary of additional civil cases, as well as Judge Sotomayor’s leading criminal law opinions.

Early Reactions. See Room for Debate Blog's Sotomayor: Does Biography Matter? (New York Times) for comments by Cristina M. Rodríguez, Richard A. Epstein, Lani Guinier, Eugene Volokh,  Glenn Greenwald and others. Nareissa Smith (Florida Coastal) is reviewing initial reaction to the nomination on Constitutional Law Prof Blog: Part I and Part II: On the Issues.  

Predictions. On Brookings, Richard Wheeler says there is no doubt that U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed to replace retiring Justice David Souter in Will Judge Sonia Sotomayor be Confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice? (video clip) See also the ABA Journal's The Four Likely Lines of Attack Against Sonia Sotomayor according to SCOTUSblog contributor Thomas Goldstein. [JH]