We'll Know More About Her Than Our Mothers

Consider yourself in the shoes of Sonia Sotomayor whose life over the past 54 years will be scrutinized, analyzed, demonized and idolized.

I hope President Obama's nominee to the United States Supreme Court is as tough as nails as she is purported to be.

Think about it. In the span of four months we will know more about the current appellate court justice than we do about our own mothers. Such is the vetting process in our system of government which is more grueling than achieving sainthood where most of our mothers reside in our minds.

How any sane person can withstand such an undressing of deeds in the public arena boggles the mind. Such is the nature of the beast for one seeking a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land.

I can assure you it wasn't always that way. A distant grandfather, Oliver Ellsworth, was appointed the second Chief Justice in 1789 by President Washington. The two were friends and my great-great grandfather was a distinguished lawyer at the time and served on the bench until 1796. It was a case of knowing the right people.

No longer. Today everyone has an opinion on what qualifies for a judgeship.

Okay, class, what did we learn about Judge Sotomayor today? Born in the Bronx of Puerto Rican parents, she was diagnosed with diabetes at age 8, her father died when she was 9 and her role models were Nancy Drew and Perry Mason. At age 10 she dreamed of becoming a judge. She graduated from Princeton and Yale Law School, married briefly, has no children but considers her law clerks as her offspring. A prosecutor, private attorney and scaled the ladder in the federal court system and, as one observer noted, blah blah blah.

That astute observer is Craig Calcaterra, a sportswriter, commenting on a judicial decision rendered by Judge Sotomayor. What, pray tell, would a sportswriter care about the intricate dealings in the court of law. I'll let him explain:

The coolest thing about the new nominee is that on March 30, 1995, she put an end to the worst strike in baseball history, when she issued the preliminary injunction against the owners preventing them from unilaterally implementing a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and using replacement players. The owners gave up the ghost right after that, and by doing so, the path was cleared for the 1995 season to begin...

Well, I have a single issue with which I'm obsessed: baseball. So far Sotomayor is batting 1.000 in that department, so as far as I'm concerned, let's skip all of the ugliness that's about to begin, confirm her and get on with the pennant races.

We all have our own agendas but sportswriters can make life so simple. Just as it was for Grandpa Ellsworth.