Did Sotomayor commit perjury?
During her confirmation hearings, VT Senator Patrick Leahy asked Judge Sonya Sotomayor many questions having to do with her beliefs and various rulings already made by the Supreme Court. Many conservatives voted her down because of how slippery her answers were. And now that she is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, one must ask: was she being truthful in her testimony?
In their monthly magazine, the NRA cited how Justice Sotomayor stated one thing about gun rights and then dissented in the recent McDonald v. Chicago decision.
Sen. Leahy: Is it safe to say that you accept the Supreme Court’s decision as establishing that the Second Amendment right is an individual right? Is that correct?
Judge Sotomayor: Yes, sir.
Leahy: Thank you. And in the Second Circuit decision, Maloney v. Cuomo, you, in fact, recognized the Supreme Court decided in Heller that the personal right to bear arms is guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the Constitution against federal law restrictions. Is that correct?
Sotomayor: It is.
Leahy: And you accept and applied the Heller decision when you decided Maloney?
Sotomayor: Completely, sir. I accepted and applied established Supreme Court precedent that the Supreme Court in its own opinion in Heller acknowledged, answered the — a different question.
The NRA points out that in the McDonald v. Chicago decision, she dissented and agreed with her liberal colleague Justice Breyer. He states in his dissenting opinion (pg. 210), “In sum, the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self-defense.”
If Sotomayor recognized that the “personal right to bear arms is guaranteed by the Second Amendment”, why did she agree with Breyer? Normally, if a justice agrees in part, they will provide their own dissent. Sotomayor did not do this. Stevens, who also dissented with the majority opinion, filed his own dissent. Sotomayor has filed her own dissents before. So why not in this case?
Somewhere, she lied. She either lied during her confirmation hearings or she lied on the bench. Either way, Congress should investigate and find out. Hopefully, if the Republicans retake the House in November, they will start impeachment proceedings.