Indictments of Obama's front-runner to replace Souter.
These moderate tendencies may explain why some liberals are not cheering her nomination; justices like Sotomayor are not likely to offer the fast track to sweeping change that these activists want. Asked at her 1997 confirmation hearings by then-Senator John Ashcroft if she would "read additional rights into the constitution, like a right for homosexual conduct on the part of a prisoner," Sotomayor responded: "I cannot do it, sir. I cannot do it because it is so contrary to what I am as a lawyer and as a judge. The constitution is what it is. We cannot read rights into" the constitution or its amendments.
