The United States Supreme Court 5-4 has overruled a decision that Sotomayor joined, concerning affirmative action. Predictably, conservatives are already saying that this shows Sotomayor isn’t fit for the high bench.
So here’s the deal.
You might recall Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a decision in which the high court ruled 5-4 that Bush’s military commissions and removal of habeas corpus was unconstitutional. That decision overruled an appeals court decision which John Roberts joined.
Obama will withdraw the Sotomayor nomination if Roberts resigns. Deal? It’s got to be, right? Right?
The more important point is that made decades ago by the great Justice Robert Jackson:
We are not final because we are infallible, but only infallible because we are final.
