Judge Sotomayor , US Supreme Court Judge

Is Judge Sotomayor Another Judge Dorthy Baker on the U.S. Supreme Court? Lex Loeb Contributor Network . Some people know what President Obama means when he calls Judge Sotomayor a judge that will bring "empathy" to the supreme court of the U.S. We found out the hard way by having the opportunity to witness Judge Dorthy Baker in her Multnomah County court room or witch's lair. Judge Baker was yet another shoe-in judge by the liberal fringe legal/ political machine of Portland, Oregon and she was outspoken in her own court room about being so. I was a witness in the court room more than once. When I read the reports that lawyers and judicial peers gave to Judge Sotomayor, the first thing that popped into mind was "Oh No! It's an other Judge Dorthy Baker but this time on the U.S. Supreme court." If any judge could be called a "Judge of empathy" or an "empathetic Judge" it was Judge Dorthy baker. I was sitting in the back row of her court room when she was discussing a case while the accused defendant was out of the room and she actually said, "haven't we spent enough money on this welfare case yet?" She was talking speaking to the district attorney to whom she acted like she had some kind of preferential relationship with in open court. The defendant had been forced to go on welfare because of her health problems and had dared to protest her mistreatment by authorities. Judge Baker had read her welfare record and concluded before deciding the case that the defendant was a liability to the county and the city and said so in open court. Later in the hearings she told the defendant to her face that she, Judge Dorthy Baker, had protested the Vietnam War and that the defendant should be willing to accept the consequences of protesting government authority. It was unbelievable the way this judge was behaving in this case. She pretty much admitted to having been arrested for being a protester itself as if that would make some difference in a case she was supposed to be an objective judge of. Mention of the Vietnam war was probably intended as some sort of empathy. I knew the defendant's side of the story and never heard any consideration of it in the whole ordeal. The way it appeared was that Judge Baker pre-decided the case in a conference with the district attorney. What was the court room hearing for? I stayed on later on as a lawyer in an orange jump suit was lead into the court room in chains on a drunk driving charge. Judge Baker was famous for throwing the book at drunk drivers. It was an enjoyable moment watching how the judge treated a fellow attorney. The lawyer in the orange jump suit got what also looked like pre-decided empathy in the court room. Judge Baker was already infamous for her record before I got to see her behavior in court. She was an judge with empathy dripping out of her pores if ever there was one. She was the concerned liberal judge of liberal judges. She was famous for throwing the book at defendant's almost quite literally. I saw her do some kind of a dance in her black robe before the court festivities began. I had seen it before when She committed Roger Weidner , a Portland attorney, to a mental hospital on more than one contempt charges. It was fascinating theater in the courtroom. Colorful and Amazing. I was sitting in front of local journalists covering what went on in her court room and was always amazed that none of Judge Baker's antics ever got a write up in the local papers. Judge Baker was described much the way Sotomayor is in her peer review. OK , Baker was probably worse but I can just imagine this at the US Supreme court level. You could see on the defendant's face that he knew he was screwed as Baker made him out to be public enemy number one. There were more drunk driving orange jump suits lined up for the same treatment behind the first one. Judge Sotomayor apparently has a lot of empathy ,herself , having taken sides with a well connected property developer who told a property owner who did not want to sell his property to the developer that he would just use his connections with the local government to use eminent domain to take the property if the owner continued to hold out. The developer was not bluffing. Eventually the developer did enlist the local government to use eminent domain for his own person benefits and Judge Sotomayor had "empathy" for the guy greasing palms! That is why the "empathy" euphemism used by the president is a warning of a dangerous person having been chosen to take a seat on the nation's highest court. Maybe Judge Dorthy Baker would make a better supreme court judge considering how I saw her treat the lawyer in the orange jump suit? Republicans sense that Sotomayor was chosen as a purely cryptic political ploy to pit white male republicans against a poor nice Latino minority woman. Some of the Republicans already took the bait and have been demonized because a successful Latino woman who worked and aspired to become a Judge is above any sort of criticism. Cynicism seems to be the name of the Sotomayor game. Judge Dorthy Baker stayed in office after years of mounting complaints against her just because of the same touchy feely nonsense. She finally did get bounced from office after a drunken incident in a bar where she mixed business and pleasure with too much to drink. She was just as inappropriate in the bar as in her court room! Although I did see Judge Baker on several circumstance go more than a little crazy I probably did not see the best of her antics because I was only a very part time court watcher. Yes there is great entertainment value in going to the local court house and seeing how your local courts really work. Oregon needs a mandatory video public record law to make sure all court room procedures are recorded for public viewing. Judge Dorthy Baker is one of the reasons I know why! Now we have Judge Soto Mayor who has a record being against private property rights and for intellectual property rights coming to the US supreme court and we are supposed to be excited because this makes her an empathetic judge? I would worry that she is more of the nature of an oligarchic Latin American Imperialist Judge with little regard for laws like the 5th amendment. Latin America has a terrible problem with the old Spanish haciendas being stolen in supreme courts and given to new dictatorial powers. Then I read that as an appellate judge Sotomayor would take Mary Contrary's position on many issues only to experiment seeing if a higher court would overturn her decision which frequently happened. Soto Mayor even went so far as to say publicly that she intends to legislate from the bench. If she had been a white male judge he might be discredited for saying something like this. The president gave a speech telling the national press corp what Soto Mayor really meant to say! Talk about an insult to a big mouth woman from some lowly Puerto Rican neighborhood in NYC! This woman can't defend her own words with out the president reclassifying what she said? Sotomayor has a reputation of telling people what she thinks in her court room. She sounds like a very rough sand paper judge or a cheese grater judge from what I read! Thanks to being an only in American story Latino woman lawyer and judge it is not fair to criticize her record. President Obama probably would have had no problem nominating Judge Dorthy Baker. She might still have her bar credentials! I wish Oregon only had a video tape court procedures law so everyone could see what I experienced in Judge Dorthy Baker's court. It is even more amazing that over all the years of her court room antics that none of the stories made the paper which is why you can't necessarily believe everything you read about Sotomayor. I bet she does a black robe dance in her court room, makes lawyers stand in the corner, blurts out her decision before considering any evidence. It happens more frequently everyday in courthouses than most people realize. Oregon was once famous for its dice flipping judge. He was banned until he switched to picking cards to facilitate cases. One It was such a fitting end to Judge Baker's career that she almost ended up in one of the orange jumpsuits herself. The question is if Sotomayor is yet another Judge Dorthy Baker? There are definite signs that point to that possibility. With republicans squirming about quashing the historic first Latina American Supreme Court Judge they forget that the first lady's maiden name in the last Bush Administration happened to be Martinez! Judge Dorthy Baker is a woman too, she is historic too. One has to wonder if the nomination of Sotomayor is somehow similar to the decision to pick a Joe Biden for Vice President. Some theorize that the president chose the stupidest Senator not just because he looked like average Joe politician but because he was more incompetent than average and no competition. Sotomayor seems relatively competent but nothing like Obama might be with his silver tongue, with or with out telepromter, with a seat on the US Supreme court. Sotomayor is probably unaware that she is a political prop and little more. If she gets the position she will be the swing vote on a variety of issues with the present composition of the court. If Obama picked Judge Dorthy Baker instead it would be like planting a judicial bomb in the court room! If Sotomayor is the same sort of judicial animal than we might see the rest of the justices quit. Get your orange jump suit pressed and cleaned because we are all going to re-education camp soon if Obama can appoint 7 Sotomayors to the Supreme Court. . Close