Justice Sonia Sotomayor lied in her confirmation hearing to be a Supreme Court justice. Gary Marx presents the evidence.

On the use of foreign law, Justice Sotomayor stated, “I will not use foreign law to interpret the Constitution or American statutes. I will use American law, constitutional law to interpret those laws, except in the situations where American law directs a court.” But, as Senator Coburn has done a nice job of highlighting, that commitment did not stop her from siding with the liberal justices in Graham v. Florida, citing foreign law to hold that it is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile offender to life without parole for a non-homicidal crime.

On the Second Amendment, Justice Sotomayor took the absurd step of pointing out that “one of my godchildren is a member of the NRA. And I have friends who hunt. I understand the individual right fully that the Supreme Court recognized in Heller.” According to Sotomayor, “I understand that how important the right to bear arms is to many, many Americans.” But, as the McDonald decision demonstrates, she didn’t understand it to be protected by the Constitution.

I point this out not because it is a surprise. Why did Sotomayor need to lie? Because Democrats understand that the American people don’t view the court as a sort of super-legislature. The American people want John Roberts’s “umpire” applying the law as written (whether that law is the constitution or a statue duly passed by the legislature and signed by the president) not Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” who decides what a “just” outcome is and twists the law to arrive at it.