By Ed Whelan,National Review
Information about Sotomayor's dismal court record
I haven’t had time to research and review Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s body of opinions,so I’ll limit myself to a couple additional comments (beyond his Part 1 post):
1. On those occasions on which the Supreme Court has reviewed Sotomayor’s rulings,she hasn’t fared well,drawing some pointed criticism and garnering at most 11 out of 44 possible votes for her reasoning across five cases.
In Malesko v. Correctional Services Corp. (2000),Sotomayor ruled that the Court’s 1971 ruling in Bivens,which implied a private action for damages against federal officers alleged to have violated a citizen’s constititutional rights,should be extended to create an implied damages action against a private corporation operating a halfway house under contract with the Bureau of Prisons. On review (Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko (2001)),the Court reversed Sotomayor by a 5-4 vote. Chief Justice Rehnquist’s majority opinion labeled the plaintiff’s claim “fundamentally different from anything recognized in Bivens or subsequent cases.”