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Steven Waldman

Bob Nylen’s just-released book, “Guts,” has to be one of the most honest war memoirs written about Vietnam. It has none of the usual agendas, either glorifying the pristine heroism of the soldiers or, alternately, showing them to be just imperialist murderers. His agenda, as usual, was candor and storytelling: the comrade who blew up…

I suggested yesterday that pro-choice and pro-life activists had jumped the gun by assuming Sonia Sotomayor to be an ardent pro-choicer. Today comes this email from Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. It doesn’t exactly sound like Keenan is 100% confident they have a passionate pro-choicer on their hands: “America’s pro-choice majority is…

It took me a few seconds to notice the man in this very sad scene.

One of the message board posters, Rev. Martin Fox, took me to task for suggesting that the Bishops might criticize Sonia Sotomayor for being a pro-choice (maybe) Catholic. “Mr. Waldman’s post misunderstands, or fails to appreciate, the distinctions the Catholic Church carefully makes between the moral responsibilities of a legislator (note, not just Catholic legislators)…

After the announcement of Sonia Sotomayor’s selection, abortion groups lined up predictably, pro-life groups expressing outrage and pro-choice offering praise. Everyone seems to be assuming she’s ardently pro-choice, if for no other reason than that Obama’s appointed her. But there’s stunningly little information about her abortion views – and what we do know hardly paints…

I’m slightly surprised that the White House press office gave out this image, from her 1976 Princeton yearbook, in which she quotes Norman Thomas. Norman Thomas was, of course, the leading American Socialist politician of the 20th century. Perhaps they figured it would come out eventually so they wanted to be able to say, “That’s…

Evidence of Sonia Sotomayer’s religion has been hard to come by, but a White House official just confirmed to me that she, in fact, Catholic. UPDATE 2:10 pm.: Another White House official elaborated slightly, “Judge Sotomayor was raised as a Catholic and attends church for family celebrations and other important events.” As David Gibson points…

One has to assume Obama wouldn’t have appointed Sonia Sotomayor without some indication that she’s pro-choice but — based on very, very little information — I wonder if she might not end up being an abortion centrist.

In Amnesty America v. Town of West Hartford, anti-abortion protestors argued that the police had used excessive force against them. A lower court had ruled that the police had not used excessive force. She ruled that “a reasonable jury could find that the officers gratuitously inflicted pain in a manner that was not a reasonable…

Interestingly, in the one abortion-related case she ruled on as a court of appeals judge, Sonia Sotomayor ruled against the pro-choice group. She rejected arguments from pro-choice advocates that their Constitutional rights were being restrained by the Bush’s administration’s policy of limiting family planning money to overseas non-profit groups. This obviously says nothing about how…
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