Big Cases on Sotomayor Docket Raise Big Question: How Will She Vote?
In the first case Sonia Sotomayor will hear as a justice, she will be asked to consider whether corporations have a First Amendment right to donate to candidates—a decision that could dramatically change U.S. elections.
But Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is just one of several big cases on the court’s early docket, the New York Times reports. Other cases before the court concern business, patent and criminal justice issues. Court watchers will eagerly await her votes to see whether she will differ much from the justice she replaced, David H. Souter.
Stanford law professor Joseph Grundfest summarized some of the big business cases on the docket for the New York Times. “The Supreme Court,” he said, “will likely issue important decisions defining the permissible level of punitive damages, the validity of business method patents, whether and when parallel conduct among competitors violates the antitrust laws, and statutes of limitations in securities fraud actions. But who the heck knows how Justice Sotomayor will vote in any of these cases?”
A former prosecutor, Sotomayor may be more conservative than Souter on criminal justice issues. Indiana University law professor Craig Bradley said he would have expected Sotomayor to vote against requiring experts who prepare lab reports to appear in court for cross-examination. Souter, however, voted with the five-justice majority saying the Constitution required the appearances in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts.
In another big criminal case, Sotomayor will consider whether the Constitution bars life sentences for juveniles who commit crimes other than murder.
The task ahead won’t be easy, according to the Times. “The volume and difficulty of the work, and the task of fitting into a storied institution populated by strong and idiosyncratic personalities, has unnerved even judges with distinguished records on lower courts, fancy credentials and ample self-confidence,” the story says.
