Ten Things To Know About Judge Sonia Sotomayor

1. Judge Sotomayor would bring more federal judicial experience to the bench than any Supreme Court justice in 100 years. Over her three-decade career, she has served in a wide variety of legal roles, including as a prosecutor, litigator, and judge.

2. Judge Sotomayor is a trailblazer. She was the first Latina to serve on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was the youngest member of the court when appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of New York. If confirmed, she will be the first Hispanic to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

3. While on the bench, Judge Sotomayor has consistently protected the rights of working Americans, ruling in favor of health benefits and fair wages for workers in several cases.

4. Judge Sotomayor has shown strong support for First Amendment rights, including in cases of religious expression and the rights to assembly and free speech.

5. Judge Sotomayor has a strong record on civil rights cases, ruling for plaintiffs who had been discriminated against based on disability, sex and race.

6. Judge Sotomayor embodies the American dream. Born to Puerto Rican parents, she grew up in a South Bronx housing project and was raised from age nine by a single mother, excelling in school and working her way to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University and to become an editor of the Law Journal at Yale Law School.

7. In 1995, Judge Sotomayor "saved baseball" when she stopped the owners from illegally changing their bargaining agreement with the players, thereby ending the longest professional sports walk-out in history.

8. Judge Sotomayor ruled in favor of the environment in a case of protecting aquatic life in the vicinity of power plants in 2007, a decision that was overturned by the Roberts Supreme Court.

9. In 1992, Judge Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate without opposition after being appointed to the bench by George H.W. Bush.

10. Judge Sotomayor is a widely respected legal figure, having been described as "...an outstanding colleague with a keen legal mind," "highly qualified for any position in which wisdom, intelligence, collegiality and good character would be assets," and "a role model of aspiration, discipline, commitment, intellectual prowess and integrity."

Judge Sotomayor is an historic, uniquely qualified nominee to the Supreme Court. Let's get the word out and make sure we get a prompt, fair confirmation on her nomination.

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Area Attorney Nominated for Texas Legal Award

BY JERRIE WHITELEY

HERALD DEMOCRAT May 19, 2009

Sherman Attorney Donald Johnston's habit of helping people with legal problems earned him a nod from the State Bar of Texas Legal Services to the Poor in Civil Matters Committee. The group nominated Johnston as a recipient of the Frank J. Scurlock Award.

Jan Kearney of Legal Aide of Northwest Texas said she nominated Johnston because of his dedication to the local legal aid clinic and because of his pursuit of a case that could affect the cost of representation for legal aid clients throughout the state.

Kearney said her organization has named him the Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year a number of times. His dedication to the volunteer clinic the group holds once a month is nearly legendary.

"He is there at every clinic almost without fail," she said, noting that Johnston is, "a true believer in equal justice for all regardless of their ability to pay."

In pursuit of that belief, Johnston even took on the way things were done at the Grayson County District Clerk's Office.

Johnston said that effort and its implications are the only reason he can think of that anyone would have nominated him for the Scurlock Award.

The case began when one of Johnston's clients filed a case to help collect child support from the father of her child on Aug. 18, 2006. At the same time, the client filed an affidavit of inability to pay costs that showed the amount of income she received and her costs of living. She also filed paperwork showing that Johnston was handling the case pro bono. Cindy Mathis Spencer, the district clerk at the time, put the case on the docket and issued a citation against the child's father without charge.

Then Tracy Powers was elected as Grayson County District Clerk and the case went to court on Jan. 11, 2008. Johnston's client won back child support, and child support to be paid from that point forward. The support, according to the order, was to be paid in monthly installments beginning Feb. 1, 2008.

Johnston sent a letter to Powers' office asking that the office deliver a certified copy of the order of withholding to the employer. The letter also reminded Powers that because Johnston's client had filed an affidavit of inability to pay, Powers should not charge any fees on the filing.

Shortly after, Johnston's office learned that Powers didn't intend to issue the certified copy until the fees were paid.

Speaking about the case this week, Powers said the she refused the request because she understood Texas Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 145 to mean that the affidavit covers the costs of an original action. "A request for a copy of the Order to Withhold Child Support is typically after judgment and is not covered by the Affidavit of Indigency," Powers said. "Furthermore, the $15 fee is a 'service' fee not a 'filing' fee; there is a cost to the county to mail documents by certified mail as well as the time and effort for a deputy in my office to prepare the documents, certify them and then mail them by certified mail; thus the 'service' fee."

Johnston sued Powers to get her to issue the certified copy in order to enforce the child support order Johnston's client had received. Visiting Judge Richard Beacom issued a declaratory judgment saying Powers should not charge the fee.

Johnston said, "We have been told by counsel for the Office of Court Administration that the court's ruling will be incorporated into the District Clerk Procedure Manual, which will affect all 254 district clerks in the state."

Kearney said the fact that Johnston took his client's interest so to heart was one reason she nominated him for the award. "He is just simply a very genuine warm, wonderful volunteer," she said.

Bury the Trans-Texas Corridor

By David Van Os

For all of you Texas patriots who have upraised your voices for the last three years against Slick Rick Perry's plans to sell off our public highway system to private interests so they can stuff their bloated pocketbooks with billions of dollars in predatory toll fees while devastating hundreds of thousands of acres of good Texas earth in massive land grabs - IT HAS COME DOWN TO THE NEXT FOUR DAYS.
The 2009 legislative session is nearing its end. The Texas Department of Transportation is facing legislative sunset this year. Various bills have passed one or the other of the two Texas legislative chambers, the Senate and the House, to reauthorize TXDOT's existence under different competing sets of values. Which will it be - democracy of the people, or despotism of the greedy?
In some of the pending versions of transportation legislation, the public will would finally be honored with the long-sought elimination of the Trans-Texas Corridor and the democratization of the Texas Transportation Commission. I want to take this opportunity to express special commendation for Rep. David Leibowitz, whose labors against the toll-building robber barons and the anti-democratic TXDOT bureaucrats are on the verge of success with the potential final enactment of his bills into law.
In other versions of transportation legislation, the use of private contracts to build and operate massive toll roads, particularly TTC-69 through the heart of East Texas, would be re-authorized. In one particularly ugly bit of backroom chicanery, a deal is already made to grant the building and operation of TTC-69 to a private company from Spain. We have been fighting the same specter for years now, but as we know, the greedy don't give up easy.
It appears probable that the competing value systems will face off in House-Senate conference committee action on Tuesday, May 26. Long hours, days, and years of hard work for many thousands of grassroots Texans who have been fighting for democracy in Texas transportation planning may come down to making sure the legislators hear the voice of the people loudly and clearly over the next four days.
The TXDOT re authorization bill is HB 300. The bad bills that the people have to defeat to nail the coffin shut on the Trans-Texas Corridor are SB 17 and SB 404. The latter bills would re-authorize CDAs (comprehensive development agreements); in other words, sell-out deals to put billions of dollars in toll fees into private pockets for operating toll roads that the people of Texas do not want.
If you want to do your part to make sure the people are finally rewarded with victory in this fight, CALL your Texas House Representative and your Texas Senator today through the Capitol switchboard at (512) 463-4630 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tell your Representative and your Senator, or their staffs, you are against SB 17 and SB 404 and anything else that allows comprehensive development agreements in highway construction. Tell them you expect them to GET RID of the Trans-Texas Corridor for good and to GET RID of private toll road development for good. Tell them you want a democratically elected Texas Transportation Commission.
We the People have been speaking for a long time. We want democracy, not corporate-governmental oligarchy. Now let's bear down. Two years ago some of the legislators who had pledged to support the people will wavered at the finish line. This time we can't let them waver. Let them hear our voices in this moment of truth. NO private contracts for toll roads, NO Trans-Texas Corridor, NO comprehensive development agreements, and YES to a democratically elected Texas Transportation Commission.

Response from Senator to a Single Payer Health Care System

I received this email from Senator Hutchinson in response to a one sentence email I sent to her last week. "We need a single payer health care system." So we know were she stands on health care but please do not let this you dissuade you from calling her or sending her an email. If she has received thousands of messages on this issue let's make sure she get tens of thousands of messages from those who want a single payer health care system & let her know that Texans say that a nationalized health care system is the answer.

The Senators letter follows:


Thank you for contacting me regarding health care reform. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

According to the United States Census Bureau, 45.7 million people, or 15.3 percent of the total population, were uninsured in 2007. The number of uninsured Texans is even higher. Recent statistics show that one in four Texans is without health insurance.

Rising insurance premiums have become an obstacle to accessing medical care. Compounding the problem is the fact that fewer employers are offering any health insurance at all. In Texas, only 52 percent of employers offer health insurance. As a result, nearly half of our state’s citizens must purchase their own insurance in the private market. More and more Texans are choosing to remain uninsured because the cost of private insurance is just too high.

We can and must do more to address this trend. Nationalized health care is not the answer. We must make it more affordable for those who are not covered through their employers to purchase their own health insurance. Tax benefits are given to employers for providing health benefits, so I believe that they should also be available to those who purchase health insurance from the individual market.

You are among thousands of concerned Texans who have written to express their views on this topic. You may be assured that as issues regarding health care reform and health insurance come before the Senate, I will keep your views in mind. I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchinson
United States Senator

284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5922 (tel)
202-224-0776 (fax)
http://hutchison.senate.gov

Email messages may be sent through the contact form found on her website at http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.cfm .

Who Rescued Captian Phillips?

Here is an interesting news facts that was left out of the media's coverage of the Somali pirate hostage taking and subsequent rescue. While much attention has been given to the kidnapped captain, & the snipers who killed three pirates. There has been little information about the Task Force Commander, Rear Admiral Michel Howard on board the USS Bainbridge the US Navy ship, that responded with swift decisive action that insured that the rescue was a success. If you watch the video & you saw a small African American lady escorting Captain Phillips? Rear Admiral Michelle Howard the first Africans American female commander of a Navel Task Force. Spread the word to your friends a neighbors since they are not likely to hear about this significant fact.

Touture Essay By: Glenn Melancon

My oldest son will enter the US Army in June. In all likelihood he will go overseas with thousands of our brave men and women. If captured by the enemy, do I want him water boarded? Do I want his captors to strip him naked, to throw freezing water on him, to slap his face or to slam him repeatedly against a wall?

When I think about torture, I’m reminded of the story told in almost every Roman Catholic Church. Hanging on the walls are the Stations of the Cross. They tell how the Romans tortured and then murdered Jesus.

Who would Jesus torture? No one. Torture is wrong. It clearly violates the Golden Rule: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

Torture is also un-American. President Barack Obama was right to let the American people see the torture memos. Now it’s time for him to appoint a Special Prosecutor to conduct a nonpartisan investigation. Here’s why.

Our founding fathers rejected torture, and so should we. They specifically wrote two amendments to our Constitution to prevent it—the Fifth and Eighth Amendments. These Amendments outlawed torture.

The Fifth Amendments says, “No person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” In the Eighteenth Century European monarchies routinely “compelled,” or tortured, suspected criminals. The founders of our Republic wanted America to be different. They recognized the fact that government officials are not infallible. They make mistakes. Torturing an individual to gain information is wrong.

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution says, no “cruel and unusual punishments [shall be] inflicted.” Torture is both cruel and unusual. It is cruel and unusual to strip a person and put them in a box. It is cruel and unusual to strap a person to a board, invert the board, place a rag in the person’s mouth and then pour water down his throat. Our founders rejected this barbaric conduct.

In 1882 the United States signed the Geneva Conventions and committed itself to the humane treatment of prisoners captured in war. As a treaty, the Geneva Conventions are the “supreme law of the land,” and the President must obey it (US Constitution, article VI, paragraph 2). Article Three of the Conventions clearly states that parties to the treaty may not torture detainees and must treat detainees humanely. Can anyone say with a straight face that the CIA treated detainees “humanely?”
Torturing Al Qaida members also threatens our national security. The torture sessions produced unreliable information. Tortured prisons simply made up information to end the physical pain and sent our intelligence officials on wild goose chases. The most useful information came by treating the captives humanely. They had been told that Americans were barbaric. When they discovered the truth, they opened up and betrayed their cause.

We can’t move forward without accountability. The Bush Administration tried to sweep this information under the rug. President Bush himself repeatedly lied to the American people, saying his administration did not torture. Thanks to President Obama we know the truth.

The only way to prevent future offenses against our values and our laws is to hold the architects of torture accountable. We must do to ourselves what we would do to others. After World War Two the United States prosecuted Japanese leaders for water boarding Americans. President Obama must appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and charge those responsible for this potential crime. To ignore his duty as President would be wrong.