As you may have noticed, Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearings continue today.
We’ve heard a lot of griping about her “wise Latina” remark and her decision in the Ricci case, as well as witnessed outbursts from anti-abortionist protestors.
But to our knowledge, we have yet to hear anyone ask her about her views on church and state issues.
We are eagerly waiting, though, because based on our research, there’s not much that clues us in to how she will answer. As the Religion News Service (RNS) summed it up today, “Sotomayor’s past decisions indicate she is hard to pigeonhole.”
The RNS article is a compilation of opinions from church-state experts (including Americans United’s Barry W. Lynn) who generally agree that we have little idea of Sotomayor’s views on the First Amendment’s religion clauses. Most of the time, her decisions show she takes free exercise of religion very seriously, but her views on “establishment” issues are not so clear.
http://blog.au.org/2009/07/15/sorting-out-sotomayor-churchstate-experts-wait-for-answers-while-the-southern-baptists-plunge-ahead/