Patterico's Pontifications

7/16/2009

Yet Another Sotomayor Malapropism

Filed under: Judiciary — Patterico @ 7:29 am



Via Beldar in the comments comes yet another malapropism from Judge Sotomayor:

And it became clear to me after looking at that case that that process led to affirming the decision of the national labor relationships board that it could and should issue an injunction on the grounds that it claimed. So that, too, was a case where there’s a new argument, a new claim, but where the application of the law came from taking the principles of the law and applying it to that new claim.

Beldar says he believes that the “national labor relationships board” may be “an online dating service for union members.” And you know, after a tough day of smashing scabs’ skulls, you need a place to unwind and meet like-minded people.

Add it to the previous examples — the “vagrancies of . . . the moment”; building up a “story of knowledge”; threats of “eminent death”; and questions of policy being within the “providence of Congress” — and it would appear that there is enough there for a news story. Wouldn’t you think?

Can anyone find one?

56 Responses to “Yet Another Sotomayor Malapropism”

  1. When Princess Diana died and when Pope John Paul II died, were those eminent deaths?
    I must move on now due to the vagrancies of the moment.

    eaglewingz08 (e40a12)

  2. This is unparalyzed in adverb and contents hearing history!

    (With thanks to Norm Crosby)

    Patricia (48ec63)

  3. Sotomayor has more malapropisms than Archie
    Bunker!
    But the difference is even more striking.
    Archie’s poor choice of words was a
    literary device used to high lite his
    ignorance and bigotry.

    Sotomayor’s word choice high lites her
    ignorance and bigotry.

    How can a judge, let alone a nominee for
    the supreme court, have such a poor
    knowledge of English vocabulary?

    She should not even be practicing law.

    jack (d9cbc5)

  4. I assume she is very careful about picking clerks that have a very good understanding of English.

    MU789 (5e1bec)

  5. I blister every time I see Sotomayor using language that is clearly beyond her apprehension.

    Cicero (70db52)

  6. Geez. This is getting arkward.

    Will (fec786)

  7. Can you imagine the conniption fit the press would have had if Justice Thomas had made these mistakes??

    franko (2f086c)

  8. The racisim on this thred is sofokating. LIVE MICHAEL ALONE!!!!!!
    sORRY, wrong blogge.

    The Emperor (0c8c2c)

  9. When Princess Diana died and when Pope John Paul II died, were those eminent deaths?

    No, when Diana died, it was a highness death. And John Paul II would have been a holiness death.

    Only Cardinals would have eminent deaths. So, when Ozzie Smith kicks off, we’ll see an eminent death.

    Steverino (69d941)

  10. “How can a judge, let alone a nominee for
    the supreme court, have such a poor
    knowledge of English vocabulary?”

    Because she’s a “wise Latina”.

    John (34fec5)

  11. Steverino – The Wizard is immortal. I loved watching him play when I was growing up. I even enjoyed watching him play softball Monday night.

    JD (5f9cc7)

  12. For my part, I am going to ease up on the wise Latina, in case Obama gets a sudden attack of sense, throws her under the bus like he is wont to do, and appoints an intelligent and competent liberal in her place who might be an effective Justice.

    nk (8d88c9)

  13. I’m sorry, but I must digress here to point out that Franken and Sotomayor deserve each other.

    steve miller (11b06b)

  14. It’s laughable that this line of attack is the best you’ve got.
    You are, sir, in enema danger of going fully off the deep end.
    And I’ll help you with another one. It sounds to me like Sotomayor, an English speaker whose first language is Spanish, says “Suprene” rather than “Supreme.”
    Is that a cardinal or mortal sin? I expect you would know.

    Larry Reilly (45e7a4)

  15. Could it be that Judge Sotomayor’s “questions of policy being within the “providence of Congress”” is not ignorance but rather is a proverbial ‘Freudian slip’, indicating her belief that Congress provides for (and should provide for) us all ?

    After all, if she were religious, would she not equally believe in the ‘Providence of the Divine’ ?

    Alasdair (6b086e)

  16. I do not think Sotomayor should be a chustice.

    Official Internet Data Office (84ff8c)

  17. You know what would be funny? Take clips of Archie Bunker malaprops with ensuing laughter and intersperse them with Sotomayor’s malaprops with laughter added.

    jcurtis (14bf32)

  18. Let’s see, you think if Bush made these mistakes the media would have just let it go???

    Steve Barg (5428d3)

  19. Vagrancies of the moment is actually kinda poetic … as a way, say, to describe those vagrant thoughts which flit into your mind while you’re doing something which doesn’t take too much attention.

    aphrael (9e8ccd)

  20. Larry Reilly, evidently you remain too clueless to understand that this post is not a “line of attack” but rather illustrative of the hypocrisy of Democratic talking points during the Bush administration.

    No surprise there of course.

    SPQR (5811e9)

  21. My Blackberry thumbs its nose at your comment caching, Patterico.

    nk (109a3f)

  22. You have to stop this now!
    Don’t you realize you’re just providing material for Rush’s show?

    AD - RtR/OS! (002e28)

  23. I don’t like this kind of gotcha story – the lady is nervous. She mis-speaks. She may not be our best and brightest, but she is not the idiot these gaffes make her appear. However, she is a Supreme Court nominee. I did expect more.

    But really, she is just a figurehead. A symbol. Her opinions will be written by the staff she will be given. So don’t worry about it. Right?

    Amphipolis (b120ce)

  24. Personally, I think Soto’s “butcherment” of the English language is part of an elaborate plot that is designed to draw attention away from a much more alarming issue.

    Specifically, the fact that “our” president throws like a six-year-old girl.

    Bubba Maximus (456175)

  25. Talk about blunders … Didn’t Teh One, an alleged White Sox fan, call their stadium Cominskey Field?

    JD (cf5c9e)

  26. I’d love to really harsh her mellow over this, but for me that would be hypocritical considering the number of strange new words I create through the vehicle of all my typos…

    Ah, how I yearn for the day when I had my own clerk/typist…

    But I will say, wasn’t there a lot of talk about how Boooooosh!’s speech patterns confirmed his doofisity? I wonder why the same doesn’t apply here?

    Could it be all of the multicultural vibe? Or maybe just the good ol’ media double standard again…

    Bob (99fc1b)

  27. Rush just played clips of these malapropisms. It’s weird as I had just commented elsewhere yesterday that she is inarticulate and displays none of the intellectual firepower that should be a requirement of a Supreme Court Justice.

    Well, we’ve dumbed down the presidency to the level of social worker; I guess we might as well dumb down the highest court in the land to the level of a public school 5th grader. SHEESH.

    Peg C. (48175e)

  28. “Evil is making the premedicated decision to be a dick”

    -Jason Stackhouse, True Blood

    Holdfast (42bed3)

  29. No, Larry, you know very well that Sotomayor’s mangling of the English language is not the “best [line of attack we’ve] got.” The best line of attack we’ve got is that she has a consistent history of public statements evidencing attitudes — e.g., that a person’s ethnicity and sex endow them with inherent judging superiority, or that judges are supposed to make policy — that ought to disqualify her from any federal judgeship, let alone the Supreme Court. (Well, that, and the fact that she has been perjuring the crap out of herself all week about what she meant by those statements.)

    Her malapropisms are, by comparison, pretty trivial, but quite amusing to point out — as Democrats know very well, when such misstatements are made by the likes of a Bush or a Palin.

    Alex (33bbc8)

  30. Her very mediocrity, at best, is the reason why I don’t favor a scorched-earth policy to try to stop her. (Well, that, plus the 60-40 makeup of the Senate.) I’d rather have this mediocrity of a liberal Justice than a brilliant version who’d be just as easily confirmed, like Kathleen Sullivan.

    Roman Hruska. Paging Roman Hruska.

    Mitch (890cbf)

  31. Gawd, wouldn’t you just give your eye teeth to know what the current judges on the Supreme Court REALLY think of Sotomayor? One can’t help but think they might be worrying she is going to lower the “elite intellectual” percentage a bit there.

    elizabeth (ab79af)

  32. So long as they’re all verbal, I don’t think it’s any big deal. Those who say the Democrats and the media would be making hay if a conservative did this are right, but it’s still not a big deal.

    tim maguire (4a98f0)

  33. So THIS is the best that Obama could find?! Wasn’t she touted as one of the brightest minds they could find?!

    If this isn’t affirmative action at its worst right here. It is fitting, Obama is our first affirmative action president and she is the first affirmative action SCOTUS.

    I can’t believe we wasted our first black president and our first hispanic female SCOTUS on these two worthless individuals.

    Clarence (fb154b)

  34. I was really bummed by the President’s “Cominsky Field” gaffe. I really liked and respected the fact that Obama was a White Sox fan. (And that was pretty much the only thing about him I did like.)

    elizabeth (ab79af)

  35. The so-called “brilliant” version, Kathleen Sullivan, flunked the California Bar Exam.

    Official Internet Data Office (84ff8c)

  36. Comment by Official Internet Data Office — 7/16/2009 @ 10:37 am

    Twice, IIRC!

    It is rumored that passing the Bar was a Condition of Employment at Stanford, which explains her abrupt departure from there.

    AD - RtR/OS! (002e28)

  37. #

    Could it be that Judge Sotomayor’s “questions of policy being within the “providence of Congress”” is not ignorance but rather is a proverbial ‘Freudian slip’, indicating her belief that Congress provides for (and should provide for) us all ?

    After all, if she were religious, would she not equally believe in the ‘Providence of the Divine’ ?

    Comment by Alasdair — 7/16/2009 @ 9:08 am

    No, the Dems believe in the providence of the Provinces, like Manitoba and Quebec. Canajan Health Care.

    B Rambo (13c115)

  38. And I’ll help you with another one. It sounds to me like Sotomayor, an English speaker whose first language is Spanish, says “Suprene” rather than “Supreme.”
    Is that a cardinal or mortal sin? I expect you would know.

    Sort of like when Bush says “nucular” instead of “nuclear”?

    Socratease (64f814)

  39. 2012 Supreme Court Majority Opinion Affirming the Constitutionality of the Obama’s Health Plan by Sonya Sotomayor

    “Um, yeah like the US Constipation is a living, breathing dokumint that is in no danger of eminent death. Airgo, the nationalized medical thing is totally cool with are foundling dockument. We, the peeps on teh Supreme Judicials, herefore state that Obama is teh epic win.”

    Chief Justice Sonya Sotomayor (4fabb2)

  40. Elizabeth – Until Cominskey Field, I believed he was actually a Sox fan. He quickly put that idea to rest.

    JD (d2a915)

  41. Even if folks think Sullivan, whom Gerald Gunther handpicked to take over “his” Con Law textbook, to be no more brilliant than Sotomayor (an, um, interesting view), then one easily could find many other liberals who think, write and speak better than Sotomayor. Sunstein. Kagan. In the Ninth Circuit, Wardlaw and Berzon. And I probably disagree with every single one of them on 90% of the hot-button judicial issues, just to be clear. (Whom would I pick? Eugene Volokh!)

    The point isn’t whom I name as a “bright liberal” instead of Soto’; it’s that Soto is obviously a mediocrity whose nomination isn’t worth a scorched-earth opposition.

    Mitch (890cbf)

  42. “So THIS is the best that Obama could find?! Wasn’t she touted as one of the brightest minds they could find?!”

    You forget: They had to check off the woman and minority and liberal-activist-“empathist” boxes first and *then* figure out whose their best candidate. Brillian white male libs need not apply.

    Sometimes, you run the screentest and you cant find ANYONE qualified that fits the boxes. very frustrating. for more on that, see Ricci v New Haven.

    PS. #40 “Airgo” LOL.
    “Cogito Airgo Some.” = “I sorta think, ya know.”

    Travis Monitor (9e3371)

  43. “But really, she is just a figurehead. A symbol. Her opinions will be written by the staff she will be given. So don’t worry about it. Right?”

    Egads. The Waxman committee just tossed out another 1,000 page freedom-destroy brain-freezing, blood-curdling pile of excrement (Boehner-TM); last month it was to destroy the energy sector, this time to socialize medical choices and destroy our healthcare freedom. Should I feel ‘better’ that the actual authors are a bunch 22-year-old nanny statist clerks and not that jackboot liberal nose-hair-infused ferret-brained bug-eyed monster Rep Waxman himself?

    Does it matter who your executioner is? Or do you feel just a wee bit worse that America is being destroyed by 20-somethings, wide-eyed with wonder at the BraveNew ObamaNation they are creating?

    Travis Monitor (9e3371)

  44. “that jackboot liberal nose-hair-infused ferret-brained bug-eyed monster Rep Waxman himself?”

    I can tell you really like this guy, Travis. He looks like what I think the pig-man in “Seinfeld” would look like. Or the pig people in the old “Twilight Zone” episode. Sorry, that’s not nice of me.

    PatAZ (9d1bb3)

  45. Patterico, I think rather than focus on these slips of the tongue, your readership would have been better served by the statements of the two fire fighters who testified before Congress today about the exam, the city’s policies, and the results of affirmative action.

    I thought especially devastating was the statement that firefighters have to make instant life and death decisions and therefore the most experienced best qualified people are needed, not quota candidates (words to that effect).

    If Sotomayor is defeated it will because of the impact her past decisions have made and the probable impact of her decisions if she makes it to the Supreme Court.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  46. Why not just get Sotomayor to answer the question does the government have the power to outlaw private health insurance?

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  47. […] up. Exit question: A federal appellate judge and Supreme Court nominee thinks NLRB stands for “National Labor Relationships Board”? Embedded video from CNN […]

    Hot Air » Blog Archive » Aw: Graham forgives Sotomayor for the “wise Latina” crap (e2f069)

  48. “Franken and Sotomayor deserve each other”

    Does Kozinksi have archived tape?

    I think we need to figure out just desserts… I vote for bleach all around

    SteveG (97b6b9)

  49. Pat #45

    Waxman looks worse than the Twilight Zone characters. You are being far too nice to Waxman.

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)

  50. So making fun of the spoken English of a minority who had a slip of the tongue is the best you folks can do? Boy, you people are pathetic. Totally pathetic.

    This whining by the right over Sotomayor sounds a LOT like the whining by the left over Roberts and Alito. Guess that’s what happens when you’re not in power.

    JEA (cfcb76)

  51. So making fun of the spoken English of a minority who had a slip of the tongue is the best you folks can do?

    Not the best, just the easiest. And you might want to ask (or is that axe?) just what makes her a minority in the first place. The Supreme Court is the third branch of government and we want to be ruled by our superiors, not our inferiors.

    nk a/k/a Sarah (35ba30)

  52. JEA – What is pathetic is your attempt to compare an obviously inferior intellect to Roberts and Alito. It is to laugh. Predictable, but pathetic, nonetheless.

    JD (6dacf4)

  53. JEA – So are you as embarrassed for Obama as the rest of the country over the Sotomayor pick compared to Roberts and Alito?

    daleyrocks (718861)

  54. #52,

    Perhaps you can show me an instance where a conservative judge threw out the exam results of minorities because too few whites were promoted. The Left’s head is exploding because it is being expoused for the racists they are,

    Thomas Jackson (8ffd46)


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