Congressional Research Service: Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Analysis of Selected Opinions

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This report provides an analysis of selected opinions authored by Judge Sotomayor during her
tenure as a judge on the Second Circuit. Discussions of the selected opinions are grouped
according to various topics of legal significance...

Overall, Judge Sotomayor’s opinions defy easy categorization along ideological lines...

The First Amendment of the Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law ... abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press.... ”4 Judge Sotomayor’s decisions interpreting this clause
do not appear to be considered particularly controversial. To the extent that a pattern can be
discerned, some might point to a meticulous recitation of the facts and her application of
precedent from the Supreme Court or the Second Circuit to those facts.5 Consequently, it does not
appear possible to discern a particular ideology from her opinions or to determine whether she
would favor a more or less expansive application of the Free Speech Clause of the First
Amendment...

An examination of Judge Sotomayor’s opinions provides little guidance as to her judicial
philosophy regarding executive authority in the realm of national security. During her tenure with
the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor has heard only a handful of cases concerning national
security matters. As will be discussed later,68 Judge Sotomayor wrote an opinion in 2006 for a
unanimous three-judge panel in Cassidy v. Chertoff, 69 holding that minimally intrusive,
suspicionless searches of passengers’ carry-on baggage and automobile trunks before boarding a
commuter ferry were justified on account of the government’s interest in deterring terrorist
attacks on large vessels involved in mass transportation. Also, as discussed previously,70 Judge
Sotomayor joined a unanimous three-judge opinion in 2008 striking down on First Amendment
grounds two provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act relating to the disclosure of the receipt of
National Security Letters.71 These cases, however, provide little indication as to how Judge
Sotomayor might rule on broader national security issues relating to executive power or the
detention of suspected terrorists...

More:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40649.pdf