Shurtleff Opposes Sotomayor Nomination
Salt Lake City- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff –candidate for the United States Senate–announced his opposition to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. “Judge Sotomayor has demonstrated throughout her career an obstinate and cavalier attitude toward Second Amendment rights,” Shurtleff stated.
“Judge Sotomayor’s limited and incorrect view on the Second Amendment demonstrates a basic lack of understanding and recognition of fundamental constitutional rights. She will be an activist justice, substituting her own personal opinion on matters of public policy for that of the legislative branch, thereby destroying the delicate balance of power established in the Constitution,” Shurtleff said.
Shurtleff specifically cited her recent decision in January of 2009 in Maloney v. Cuomo where Sotomayor ruled that states are not required to honor the Second Amendment; “Sotomayor falls in line with those who dissented in the Heller decision and indicates an unwillingness to apply gun rights to the states.” Shurtleff continued, “Even the liberal Ninth Circuit disagreed with this opinion.”
By her own admission, Sotomayor has claimed, as part of a 2004 decision, that, “The right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right.”
“She has a very limited view of the Second Amendment, and I am not convinced of her understanding of this fundamental constitutional right,” Shurtleff said.
Shurtleff joined with fellow Attorneys General, both Democrat and Republican, on an Amicus Petition in NRA v. Chicago that addressed some of these very concerns. This petition noted that just last year, the Supreme Court indicated in District of Columbia v. Heller that “[b]y the time of the founding, the right to have arms had become fundamental for English subjects … Indeed, Blackstone included the right of ‘having’ arms among the five basic rights of every Englishman, those rights which secured the ‘primary rights’ of each individual. … And because Blackstone’s works ‘constituted the preeminent authority on English law for the founding generation,’ … his understanding of the right to bear arms ‘provides insight into how American colonists would have understood it.’ A PDF copy of this bipartisan AG Amicus Petition can be found at www.markshurtleff.com.
Shurtleff has also cited concerns with the ambiguous nature of her answers to several critical questions during the nomination hearings, specifically, regarding her previous decisions concerning property rights, equal protection, foreign law and voting rights.
“Judge Sotomayor has proved that her views are out of line with the vision of the founders and the authors of our constitution. Despite Senator Bennett’s previous support for Sotomayor, I would encourage our delegation to vote no” Shurtleff asserted.
Utah Attorney General announced his candidacy for the United States Senate on May 20, 2009. He will face fellow Republican and three-term incumbent Senator Bob Bennett in the Republican nominating convention next spring.
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