'Wise Latina' Sotomayor heaps praise on San Francisco's new far-left DA, Chesa Boudin

San Francisco, whether it knows it or not, should be bracing to get even more crime-ridden and hellish than it already is with the questionably rigged election of Chesa Boudin as the city's chief prosecutor.

Boudin, recall, vows to ignore quality-of life crimes; drop gang enhancement charges on gangsters; and pressure victims of violent crimes to opt for "restorative justice" instead of jail time, letting crooks off if they apologize.  What could go wrong?

Not a problem for Wise Latina herself, Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, who horned in on Boudin's inauguration, sending this far-to-the-far-leftist an unprecedented message of pride and praise:

Chesa, my court sessions resume next week so I am unable to join your inauguration ceremony. I sent you this message to tell you how much I admire you, and to wish you well in your new endeavors.

...and...

Your personal strength and commitment to reforming and improving the criminal justice system is a testament to the person you are and the role model you will continue to be for so many.

Chesa, you have undertaken a remarkable challenge today. I hope you reflect as a great beacon to many, and the road to accomplishing what you have set out to do will be daunting. Nevertheless, the city of San Francisco will be so very well served by a man whose life creed is believing, as you told me 'We are all safer when we uplift victims, hold everyone accountable for their actions, and do so with empathy and compassion.'

There's plenty more to gag about in the entire text of the message, transcribed in the San Francisco Chronicle, here.

Three ways to unpack this Sotomayor glurge:

One, it's pretty unprofessional, which is sorry stuff coming from a supposedly straight-arrow Supreme Court justice.  Not only is Boudin an elected official well outside the realm of supposedly impartial judges, but he could easily come into conflict with judges as a partisan prosecutor.  His interests may well conflict with those of judges because they're not the same interests, and he sure as heck isn't about to be impartial.  We already know he's partial to crooks.  According to National Review's Ed Whelan:

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but it strikes me as highly unusual that a sitting Supreme Court justice — or any federal judge, for that matter — would publicly lavish such praise on an elected official, especially in the absence of a previous working relationship or close friendship that would give her a special basis for offering insights into his character. In fact, the only similar example that comes readily to mind is the troublingly partisan public cheerleading that Sotomayor, then on the Second Circuit, engaged in over the election of President Obama. But if anyone thinks I'm overlooking other examples, please let me know. (Statements at retirement ceremonies would seem to be readily distinguishable, but I'd still be interested in them.)

I also don't think the fact that Boudin's position is legal or prosecutorial rather than purely political makes Sotomayor's embrace of him okay.

Two, it's nonsense.  Sotomayor paints the rich, white, cosseted Boudin, who grew up with rich step-parents in the seat of luxury in Chicago, and then parsed their knowledge and connections to secure a very privileged spot for himself — as a victim.  He was a victim, but a weird one — a victim whose step-parents were pillars of the establishment.  Those step-parents, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, had been two radical far-left terrorists who, unlike his dad, got let off for their crimes and then went on to secure fancy university teaching professorships, something young Chesa benefited from as other kids didn't.  "Guilty as hell, free as a bird," as Ayers put it.  That's not exactly an advertisement for the success of justice or rule of law; it's an advertisement for lawbreaking and the failures of justice when leftists are around.

Yet in Sotomayor's world, Chesa's a victim and therefore a hero — and a hero in need of some kind of praise and encouragement, despite the guy being nearly 40 years old and well past the needs-a-mentor stage.  Victim = Hero.  She speaks of this guy's visiting his parents in jail as proof of his privation, yet there's nothing victim-y about it.  Boudin shares his parents' exact values, which is why Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez took such a shine to him as radical royalty.  Boudin's prison trips were more likely indoctrination sessions than burdensome visits. 

Three, the whole thing is partisan, not a shared commitment to public service.  Sotomayor is a far leftist, and reputedly a stupid one, unable to keep her partisanship to herself.  The last time she was in the public eye she said she wanted to break a baseball bat over her fellow Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia for saying things she didn't agree with.  Now instead of sticking with her profession, she's advocating for solidarity among far-leftists.  This is bad stuff.  What it shows is just how unfit she is for her office and how unfit Boudin is, too.

This doesn't look good.

Image credit: Gage Skidmore via FlickrCC BY-SA 2.0.

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