President
Obama and his first Supreme Court Nominee, Judge Sonia
Sotomayor.
Despite controversy over recent years, the U.S. legal
system
remains the envy of many other nations.
La Prensa, Nicaragua
Obama's Nomination
of Sotomayor a Chance for Nicaraguans to Take Stock
"Fate has decreed that the selection of a justice to the Supreme Court of Nicaragua would coincide with the nomination of a justice to the Supreme Court of the United States. This gives Nicaraguans an
opportunity to compare both processes and clearly identify the 'original sin' that
makes our Supreme Court one of the Republic's most discredited institutional
bodies, whereas in the United States, it is one of the most respected."
By Eduardo Enríquez
Translated By Liz Essary
June 1, 2009
Nicaragua
- La Prensa - Original Article (Spanish)
Fate has decreed that the selection
of a justice to the Supreme Court of Nicaragua would coincide with the nomination
of a justice to the Supreme Court of the United States. This gives Nicaraguans an
opportunity to compare both processes and clearly identify the “original sin” that
makes our Supreme Court one of the Republic's most discredited institutional
bodies, whereas in the United States, it is one of the most respected.
When there is a vacancy on
the Supreme Court of the United States, the president (and only the president)
nominates a candidate he considers the most suitable for his vision (of the
president and his party), for the State, for society, etc., to be protected - and
so that his vision can be consolidated. The nominee is then subjected to fierce
scrutiny in the media - but also in the Senate, which is responsible for ratifying
the nomination.
In Nicaragua, on the other
hand, since the reforms of 1995, not only the president but the deputies in the
National Assembly can nominate judges. I can think of only one case during the last
18 years in which we carried out a process similar to that in the United States.
Let's look at the current
example. In the United States, President Barack Obama has nominated Judge Sonia
Sotomayor, a woman of Puerto Rican origin with a liberal view of what North
American society should be. “Liberal” in the U.S. means, for example, to be in
favor of abortion rights and protecting the rights of ethnic minorities. What's
more, she hasn't come from nowhere: she has ample experience as a judge and an attorney,
and she sits on a Court of Appeals.
In Nicaragua, however, parties and
the overlords that control
them want two things when they nominate candidates: that the candidate's loyalty to the overlord is assured, and that the
nomination directly benefits the party leadership. That is why in recent times,
we have seen the Supreme Court take the side of the Sandinistas, for example
judges like Dr. Juana Méndez who in less than six years made a dizzying ascent
from being a local judge in 2000 to a Supreme Court Justice in 2006.
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
La Jornada, Mexico:
With Judge Sotomayor, Obama Boosts Image of U.S. Supreme Court
Or on the Constitutionalist Liberal Party side, we
see a man like Antonio Alemán, whose only virtue is that he's the brother of
Liberal Party leader Arnoldo Alemán.
Now there's talk that the
next justice "is for” the Liberals, according to a pact that divides nominees
between Sandinistas and Constitutional Liberals, and that this justice will be
a National Assemblyman.
[Editor's Note: Arnoldo Alemán, the president
before Ortega, took office in 1997 and rebuilt the Liberal Party political
machine of former pro-US. dictator Anastasio Somoza
[1967-1972]. In an attempt to outflank Ortega's
Sandinista Party [the FSLN] and consolidate power, Alemán forged a pact with Ortega in 1999 that offered the FSLN just enough of a stake in government to give Nicaragua
political stability and permit economic recovery. Alemán
hoped the pact would make the Sandinistas a permanently disadvantaged
opposition. The two party bosses divided the instruments of power between them.
As a result of this power-sharing arrangement, Nicaragua’s government branches
were converted into partisan instruments that Alemán
and Ortega have since manipulated to harass their political opponents and
frequently, one another].
Now debate has begun in the Nicaraguan
Senate as well as the Assembly.
In Washington, the topic of debate
how "liberal" Judge Sotomayor really is. Whether she supports
abortion rights or not, whether she supports the rights of minorities or not; whether
she supports state's rights over federal government or not - and a great many
other issues that relate to U.S. law and the Constitution. It won't be easy for
Obama to get her in, but his chances of getting his nominee approved are good,
not because of some pact, but because he has a majority in the Senate, after
winning the votes of a clear majority of the people and under a transparent set
of rules that dates back dozens of decades.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
In Nicaragua, there is no
philosophical discussion about how State or society should be organized. If the
pact is respected, it can be assumed that the Liberal Alemán will be elected,
but with Alemán's Liberals in such a weakened position, the Sandinistas might
end up selecting one of their allies or perhaps someone from the Nicaraguan
Unity Bench [a new party that was launched this year]. And that would give even
greater control of the Supreme Court to the Sandinistas.
This selection process is the
“original sin” of the powers that be in our failed state. It wouldn't be
difficult for them to make things right. They just don't want to.
CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US June 5,
5:30am]
