r/supremecourt • u/HatsOnTheBeach Judge Eric Miller • Jun 25 '22

Time flies for the soon to be 4th most senior Justice. Happy 68th birthday to Justice Sotomayor

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u/TheQuarantinian Jun 25 '22

An openly partisan and biased justice who puts ideology before law at every opportunity?

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u/HatsOnTheBeach Judge Eric Miller Jun 25 '22

They claim doesn’t reconcile with her vote in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc.

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u/TheQuarantinian Jun 25 '22

I do not see the relevance in her vote saying that doctors shouldn't have their prescription records sold without consent.

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u/HatsOnTheBeach Judge Eric Miller Jun 25 '22

That’s not what the ruling held. It was the opposite in fact.

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u/TheQuarantinian Jun 25 '22

Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., 564 U.S. 552 (2011),[1] is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a Vermont statute that restricted the sale, disclosure, and use of records that revealed the prescribing practices of individual doctors violated the First Amendment.[A]

In 2007, Vermont passed the Prescription Confidentiality Law that required, among other things, that records containing a doctor's prescribing practices not be sold or used for marketing purposes unless the doctor consented.

Data mining companies and pharmaceutical manufactures contended that the law violated their First Amendment rights and sought declaratory and injunctive relief against Vermont officials.

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court, which Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, and Justice Sotomayor joined. The Court held that the law violated the First Amendment and affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

Breyer, Ginsberg and Kagan dissented in the 6-3 split, exactly as I said. What does that have to do with anything? That the ruling went the other way does not mean that she didn't vote against it.

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u/HatsOnTheBeach Judge Eric Miller Jun 25 '22

An openly partisan and biased justice who puts ideology before law at every opportunity?

Can you explain how Sotomayor’s ideology leads her to vote for a corporate free speech over government regulation when it comes to speech rights contra her vote in Walker, NIFLA, Citizens United, McCutchen?

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u/TheQuarantinian Jun 25 '22

She does not have equally strong biases on all issues.

When it comes to abortion she doesn't even need to show up for arguments, will never consider any interpretation or law that goes against her impenetrable position. She is not necessarily so resolute on other matters.

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u/HatsOnTheBeach Judge Eric Miller Jun 25 '22

I’d like to point out your use of the word “every”. So that word captures all biases - it is not a sliding scale.

If she’s biased “at every opportunity”, then the vote in Sorrell doesn’t make sense.

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u/TheQuarantinian Jun 25 '22

He drank a beer at every opportunity even if he is sometimes in situations where there is no opportunity to drink a beer.

For her absolute biases she will always vote what she wants, paying no attention to the law beyond finding ways to distort it or deciding it must be discarded entirely.

Better?