Sotomayor: Detailed, Thorough, Dull?

In a recent article in the Washington Post, Sonia Sotomayor is singled out for her unusual attention to detail — unusual for an appellate judge. The Post article is primarily concerned with her non-employment cases. The only thing the article says about labor and employment, almost in passing, is that Sotomayor seems sympathetic to employees claiming discrimination. Once she’s been on the Supreme Court a while, it may turn out that she is sympathetic in that way, but her judicial record so far doesn’t support the Post’s observation in this regard.

In my several posts on Sotomayor’s district court labor and employment decisions and the opinions she’s authored in the labor and employment area as a member of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, one thing that is abundantly apparent is her attention to detail. She’s thorough, sometimes ponderous (I prefer that term to dull), in trying to make clear why she is deciding one way or another. As an appellate judge, this is particularly true when she reverses the holding of a lower court.

For a refresher on my Sotomayor posts and their demonstration of her thorough approach, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Some lawyers, judges and legal scholars are critical of her approach, suggesting overkill, waste of time, and worse. To me, her approach is a matter of style rather than substance and doesn’t suggest, as the Post claims, that she’s typically Democratic or liberal.

It’s perhaps worth remembering that Felix Frankfurter, an appointee of Franklin Roosevelt, wrote a lot of opinions while he was on the Court and that a fair share of them were quite lengthy. Frankfurter was supposed to be a staunch liberal. His legacy is one of conservatism and judicial restraint.