ZiefBrief

Reading 1194 Sotomayor Opinions So You Don't Have To

From above the 49th Parallel, our colleague Library Boy alerts us to the latest entry in the "read and analyze all of Judge Sotomayor's opinions" sweepstakes. NYU Law School's Brennan Center for Justice gives us: Monica Youn, Judge Sotomayor's Record in Constitutional Cases. The Executive Summary concludes: "in constitutional cases, Judge Sotomayor is solidly in the mainstream of the Second Circuit." Details are in the full 50-page report

Digging Deep Into the Sotomayor Record at National Archives

Today we heard that the National Archives has just added 122 Clinton-era emails mentioning Sonia Sotomayor [ginormous 310 MB zip file… took us over 20 minutes to download at T1+ speeds] to its collection of documents related to or mentioning the Supreme Court nominee.

These emails join the previously released:

•  "5,032 pages of [Clinton Library] Presidential records relating to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit"
• 62 pages of records from the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library

ZiefBrief pities the Senate Judiciary Committee, White House, and other staffers who have to comb through these emails. The first one we picked to open (with the titillating title  "id-11761905-sneak-and-peek-.pdf" turned out to be the results of a Lexis federal case law search (for: sneak w/5 peek and warrant), and the others we skimmed were no more enlightening about the life and philosophy of Judge Sotomayor. Still, for the persistent researchers (not us, not today), there might be fascinating nuggets in there.

Hat tip:  Emily Carr, reference librarian at Law Library of Congress

Judge Sotomayor's Senate Judiciary Committee Questionnaire — and More

The Senate Judiciary Committee has released the questionnaire prepared by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The questionnaire comes with a raft of varied and fascinating attachments which include: news stories going back to the 1970s; speeches; minutes of the State of New York Mortgage Agency; reports of the New York City Campaign Finance Board; course syllabi from Columbia, New York University, and the University of Puerto Rico; the Report of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts; and transcripts and questionnaires from Judge Sotomayor's 1992 and 1997 Senate confirmation proceedings. 

All this and more is available from the Committee at:

Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court - Sonia Sotomayor - Questionnaire

(All of the Committee's materials on Judge Sotomayor's nomination are collected here: Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court - Sonia Sotomayor.)

Judge Sotomayor: In-Depth Background

If you're looking to get your hands on comprehenisve information about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, these sources should help.

• Sonia Sotomayor page, Law Library of Congress.

  Lists articles and other publications; has information on Judge Sotomayor's 1992 and 1997 confirmation hearings; links to other web sites. [Hat tip to Emily Carr, Legal Reference Specialist, Law Library of Congress.]

• Supreme Court Nominations Research Guide, Georgetown Law Library.

  Includes or links to biographies, transcripts of the 1992 and 1997 confirmation hearings; citations to publications by Judge Sotomayor; background information about the nomination and confirmation process.

• Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor Opinions and Papers (SOTOMAYOR-NOM), from Westlaw (for subscribers only).

  Contains "opinions joined or authored by Judge Sotomayor while sitting on the United States Court of Appeals and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York … federal or state decisions in which Judge Sotomayor was an attorney of record or party … [selected] articles written by or about Judge Sotomayor … a current resume of Judge Sotomayor by West's Profiler … her biography from the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary … congressional documents related to the nomination process."

• Articles by or about Judge Sotomayor, from HeinOnline (for USF subscribers only).

  Over 170 articles containing at least one mention of the nominee. [If you belong to another institution that subscribes to HeinOnline, try this link to HeinOnline's Sotomayor articles.]

Analyzing Judge Sotomayor Opinion by Opinion

Not for ZiefBrief the YouTube clips, the excerpts from the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, or the 8-second sound bites. To to take the measure of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, we prefer to dig right in to her opinions. For this, we find that a couple of sources and tools are particularly helpful.

First, there's a concise New York Times summary (with links to full text) of Judge Sotomayor's Notable Court Opinions and Articles.

Then there are ScotusBlog's analyses of her appellate opinions:

• Judge Sotomayor's Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases
• Judge Sotomayor's Civil Opinions - Part II
• Judge Sotomayor's Civil Opinions - Part III
• Judge Sotomayor's Civil Opinions - Part IV
• Judge Sotomayor's Opinions with Dissents – Part I

These ScotusBlog analyses don't link to full text, but they do include case names and docket numbers.

And Lexis or Westlaw subscribers who want to go beyond summaries and analyses can do comprehensive searches for Judge Sotomayor's opinions and orders.

On Lexis, pick one of these sources: "NY Federal District Courts" or "2nd Circuit - US Court of Appeals Cases." For searches try:

• opinionby(sotomayor) [for any District Court opinions, and for majority opinions in the Court of Appeals]
• concurby(sotomayor) [for concurring opinions in the Court of Appeals]
• dissentby(sotomayor) [for dissenting opinions in the Court of Appeals]

On Westlaw, pick one of these databases: "U.S. District Court Cases for New York" (DCTNY) or "U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Cases" (CTA2). For searches, try:

• judge(sotomayor)
  [for any District Court opinions, and for majority opinions in the Court of Appeals]
• con(sotomayor +s concur!)
  [for concurring opinions in the Court of Appeals]
• dis(sotomayor +s dissent!)
  [for dissenting opinions in the Court of Appeals]

If you find the results of the Lexis and Westlaw searches overwhelming (and for lead opinions and orders, you'll get hundreds of results), add other search terms to retrieve cases dealing with specific facts or issues.

Supreme Court Nomination Information

There was a time in the not too distant past that Zief law librarians scurried around and printed out everything we could find on the nominees for a newly vacated seat on the US Supreme Court. All of those pages would be slapped into a three ring binder for the edification of anyone who happened to be interested. Needless to say, this generated a lot of dead trees for a resource relatively few people saw.
    Now that we are in the Age of the Internet it makes more sense to share top-drawer web sites for our patrons with an interest in the process and people involved in selecting Justice Souter's replacement. The following sites currently show information on the last round of nominations but they will undoubtedly be brought up-to-date as events transpire.
    A good first stop is the Supreme Court Nominations Page at the Law Library of Congress. This useful collection of information includes lists of nominees confirmed and not confirmed by Congress, bibliography on the nomination process, and information about nominees.
    Another good source is the Supreme Court Nominations Research Guide maintained at our sister Jesuit institution, the Georgetown Law Library. The page outlines the nomination process and includes information about nomination hearings of justices and past confirmation failures.