What's the law? Depends on who the judge is

"President Barack Obama's selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Supreme Court justice David Souter is a gift to Republicans - but not to the law.

The essence of the rule of law is that identity doesn't matter. The law means the same thing regardless of the identity of people applying the law or subject to it. We don't have one law for Jews and another for Catholics, one for Italian-Americans and another for Hispanic-Americans. We don't need to know who the judge is to know what the law is.

Judge Sotomayor's nomination is predicated on almost exactly the opposite understanding of what law is and should be, of what matters in our judges and their decisions. But the defects of the nomination - probably not sufficient to derail its confirmation by a heavily Democratic Senate - are enough to give Republicans a glimmer of hope."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/05/27/judge_sotomayors_identity_problem_96682.html