Former acting Dean of Yale Law School and former member of the Board of Trustees Kate Stith-Cabranes '73 praised Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's intellectual and professional capabilities while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday afternoon. Stith-Cabranes, who was called as a witness by the Democratic party during Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, has academic expertise in criminal law and has known the judge since 1992.
"The judge's former clerks have told me time and again that they greatly appreciate [Sotomayor's] demanding devotion to the law, as a result of which they were held to higher standards and learned more than at any other time of their lives," Stith-Cabranes said.
Sotomayor, a graduate of Yale Law school, is the first candidate for the Supreme Court to be nominated by a Democrat President Barack Obama in 15 years, and, if confirmed, would be the first Hispanic and third woman to serve as a judge on the Supreme Court.
Her confirmation hearings before the Judiciary Committee began on Monday, and the Senate is expected to vote on her nomination in early August, according to various media reports.
From 1981 to 1984, Stith-Cabranes served as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York where Sotomayor later served as a federal judge.
In her testimony, Stith-Cabranes assessed Sotomayor's professional credentials as a judge and prosecutor.
Stith-Cabranes said that she herself is qualified to assess the nominee's record because she has been "unusually involved" with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where Sotomayor currently serves.
"In my judgment, this is an exceptionally strong nomination," Stith-Cabranes said. "My judgment has nothing to do with Judge Sotomayor's sex, ethnicity, or personal story.'"
She also said that she has had multiple conversations with Sotomayor about the qualities of a good law clerk, and, by extension, a good judge.
"Through these discussions over the course of more than fifteen years, I believe that I have gained insight into her understanding of the role of a judge," she said.
Sotomayor, according to Stith-Cabranes, believes that judges need to be serious about the law above all other factors, hard working, and, most importantly, willing to rethink their personal or prior opinions when facing a new case or new evidence about a case. Although Stith-Cabranes did not discuss Sotomayor's comments about a "wise Latina" judge sometimes reaching a better conclusion than a white male, much of her testimony seemed calculated to demonstrate that Sotomayor is an objective, unbiased judge.
Stith-Cabranes served on Dartmouth's Board of Trustees from 1989 to 2001, and was also the first woman to serve as acting Dean of Yale Law School.
Her law expertise includes criminal law, criminal procedure and constitutional law, according to the Yale Law School web site.
Following her tenure on the Board, Stith-Cabranes became actively involved in the 2007 debate which followed the College's decision add eight new trustees to its Board.
The Association of Alumni argued that this decision would break the parity between alumni-elected and Board-selected trustees that they said was promised to alumni in a resolution made in 1891.Stith-Cabranes actively refuted that claim, writing a guest column in The Dartmouth Independent arguing that the 1891 resolution was not a binding agreement.
While at the College, Stith-Cabranes, then Katie Stith-Pressman, was a reporter for The Dartmouth.
She graduated first in her class in 1973. Her son, Alejo Cabranes, was a member of the Class of 2008.
