Sotomayor Revealed Pt 2: The Jurist Jests

Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, uses some the same communication techniques that we have seen from the President's teleprompter and one of he favorites is the use of jokes (warning: this is not a endorsement of her sense of humor . . . something as rare in liberal politicians as jobs in the public sector).

But I've always felt that you can tell a lot about a person by the jokes they tell. Some irreverent folk lean toward inappropriateness with offense, some crude creepers drop the horribly racist, and others are just plan dull and their punchline land like a flu shot on the nurse's first day.

With Sotomayor we see and interesting revelation as reported by The National Review. While speaking at Hofstra she dropped this little gem; and watch closely because the punchline comes before the end.

It involves three judges who go duck hunting. A duck flies overhead and the supreme court justice, before he picks up his shotgun, ponders about the policy implications of shooting the duck—how will the environment be affected, how will the duck hunting business be affected if he doesn’t shoot the duck, well by the time he finishes, the duck got away.

Another duck flies overhead, and the circuit judge goes through his five part test before pulling the trigger—1) he lifts the shotgun to his shoulder, 3) [sic] he sights the duck, 3) he measures the velocity of the duck’s flight, 4) he aims, and 5) he shoots—and, he misses.

Finally, another duck flies by, the district judge picks up the shotgun and shoots. The duck lands and the district judge picks it up, swings it over his shoulder and decides that he will let the other two judges explain what he did over dinner.

Read that description of the supreme court justice closely. With Sotomayor, the defining jest of the Supreme Court is their obligation in establishing policy. Apparently for Sotomayor the separation of powers is a jackass jape.