Good news: the Perez Hilton copyright thuggery will be challenged.

Copyright lawyer and blogger Ben Sheffner reports:

The National Organization for Marriage has rejected a demand by an attorney for Mario Lavandeira (aka blogger Perez Hilton) that the anti-gay-marriage group cease and desist broadcast of a TV ad that includes a 3-second clip of Lavandeira calling Miss California USA a “dumb [beep].” . . . The firestorm appears to be far from over.

Good.

As has been observed, neither party has particularly clean hands, as Perez Hilton has screamed “fair use” where he shouldn’t have, and NOM has raised copyright claims where they shouldn’t have.

None of that particularly matters to the present debate; all it does is give each side ample opportunity to point the Finger of Dispproval at whichever side they wish to hold accountable for its hypocrisy. But even if we assume for the sake of argument that both sides are hypocrites, the present controversy is what it is: a thug using a transparently frivolous legal claim to squelch criticism.

It won’t work. Bring it on, Perez Hilton. The further you take this, the worse you’ll look.

I am going to predict that Sonia Sotomayor will be Obama’s nominee to replace Souter. Conventional wisdom is that he “has” to pick a woman. He won the 2008 election on the strength of the Latino vote in the West, and no doubt feels that it will shore up his standing among Latinos to appoint the first Latina to the High Court. Sure, it would be a grander gesture closer to the next election . . . but who knows if he’ll get another chance?

With that in mind, savor this clip of Judge Sotomayor saying that “Court of Appeals is where policy is made” — followed by a quick “D’oh!” moment as she realizes she’s on tape, at which point she backtracks in a rather lame and insincere fashion:

Whoever it is will be liberal and will be confirmed. Still, I think it would be educational and enjoyable to watch a Senator confront her with this clip in televised nationwide hearings.

Until then, you can enjoy this: an article about her shortcomings, in which one of her supporters says: “She’s a fine Second Circuit judge–maybe not the smartest ever, but how often are Supreme Court nominees the smartest ever?”

Hooray.

UPDATE: Orin Kerr has a link to the entire video, which he says places the comment in context, as distinguishing the roles of district courts (which decide individual cases) and courts of appeals (which must consider the wider impact that their ruling will have on other cases). This explanation mitigates the damage slightly, but I think it’s a poorly phrased comment at best.