However, one can dream. Dream of a Senate not full of progressives, for whom the Constitution has been just a quaint old document and an annoyance to be sidestepped whenever possible – going back as far as Woodrow Wilson. (That’s nearly one hundred years, folks. No wonder our Republic is so far off the rails.)

Imagine instead a body full of Senators who understand and revere the Constitution; who understand how the Constitution provides the means to limit the Federal government not the people. If some parallel Senate was composed of such people the questioning of Judge Sotomayor might go something like this:

Judge Sotomayor, The Fourteenth Amendment says, in part, that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” This amendment, adopted in 1868, expands on the language in Article 4, Section 2, which says, “The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.” Please reconcile these two examples - clearly endorsing the ideal of equality, regardless of a person’s external appearance – with your finding in the Circuit court that the civil rights of one group of firefighters in New Haven, CT take precedence over another group, solely because of their external features.

Judge Sotomayor, you stated that in deciding cases before the Court, you intend to apply a certain amount of empathy towards minorities and those ‘less fortunate,’ however you define that term. Please cite the article and section of the Constitution that allows Supreme Court Justices to use anything other than a fair interpretation of a case, against Constitutional allowances of the government’s power, to decide a case. You do understand that the lady holding the scales of justice is blindfolded for a reason, do you not?

On more than one occasion you mentioned that the fact that you are a Latina would help you reach better conclusions on the Bench than a white male. Two questions on that: What, exactly, do you think the chances would be of this body confirming any white male who had made the same statement – professing his superiority because of race? And secondly, given our line of questioning on true equality – not the lip service that we give to equality today – wouldn’t it be extremely unfair to ignore a statement like that from you when it would almost automatically disqualify someone else?

Don’t hold your breath for any of these questions to be asked of the nominee – and if they were, the questioner would certainly be derided as the worst misogynist-racist in existence anywhere.

But, one can dream.