The Supreme Court in summation

When she appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, Sotomayor can expect to be asked about some of the cases decided in the past term, notably the ruling in the firefighters case that overturned a decision by her and two other federal appeals court judges. If Republicans on the committee are fair-minded, they won't argue that Sotomayor is somehow disqualified because five justices disagreed with her in a complicated case. She followed the rules as written and deferred to the actions of a local government; now the Supreme Court has exercised its right to change those rules. Still, that doesn't mean Sotomayor can't be asked if she agrees with the reasoning in that case and others decided this term.

It's also fair to ask her to pronounce on the broader issues raised in those cases: How important is consensus on the court? How far and in what situations should the court defer to Congress and state legislatures, city councils and school boards? Should the court apply special scrutiny to cases in which civil liberties rather than economic interests are at stake? The fact that Sotomayor is likely to be confirmed easily should make her more willing than past nominees to discuss her view of the court on which she aspires to sit.