(Host) Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has a deep Vermont connection.
Sotomayor traveled to Vermont in 2007 to attend a memorial at Vermont Law School in South Royalton for her friend, the late Judge James Oakes.
VPR’s Steve Zind has more:
(Zind) Oakes was a former Vermont lawmaker and Attorney General who was first appointed to the bench by Richard Nixon.
Over the years, he earned a reputation as a liberal defender of environmental protections, free speech and the rights of the accused. His career included 36 years on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
When Sotomayor was appointed to the same court, Oakes was a senior judge and the two became close. Oakes’ chambers were in Brattleboro but he often presided in Mahattan where he and his wife Mara got to know Sotomayer well.
(Williams Oakes)"He thought she was a good craftsperson, judicially sound. And because she came out of not only a trial court but had been a prosecutor as well, what Jim always would remark is she understands how law and legislation needs to be applied to work in the court system."
(Zind) Mara Williams Oakes says her husband and Sotomayor shared the same philosophy: That the law must be interpreted and there’s no such thing as strict constructionism.
She defends Sotomayor’s remark that as a Latino woman judge she might reach a better conclusion than a white male judge. The comment has been seized upon by Sotomayor’s critics. But Williams Oakes says Sotomayor was simply acknowledging that everyone’s perspective is different and can sometimes limit them.
(Williams-Oakes) "What she said in her totality was ‘I am the sum total of my experiences and in these kind of situations I hope I can come to a better conclusion for these people."
(Zind) Williams-Oakes says she’s watched Sotomayor on the bench and she dismisses accusations that the nominee is short tempered. She described her friend as warm, funny…and an expert salsa dancer.
For VPR News, I’m Steve Zind.