Well she hasn’t ruled directly on any abortion rights.  However she has ruled in three abortion related decisions on the side that Pro-Life groups support.  In Center for Reproductive Law & Policy v. Bush, 304 F.3d 183 she ruled in favor of the Bush Administration’s policy of not giving money to foreign organizations that perform abortions.

The second case was Port Washington Teachers’ Association v. Board of Education. The teacher’s union was challenging a policy that teacher’s report student pregnancies to the parents.  The case was tossed out as it wasn’t a requirement that the reports be made and therefore the argument had no standing.

The third case was Amnesty America v. Town of West Hartford. In a nutshell a Pro-Life group was demonstrating and the police got involved. The demonstrators sued charging that the West Hartford Police Department used excessive force in actions taken against the demonstrators. Sotomayor ruled in favor of the Pro-Life group in a statement

“Because a reasonable jury could find that the officers gratuitously inflicted pain in a manner that was not a reasonable response to the circumstances…”

It was a ruling that really had little to do with abortion itself.  It was a ruling on the police department’s practices in regards to protestors/demonstrators.

Other than the first one that clearly allowed the Bush Administration the ability to withhold funds from groups that were preforming abortions, essentially ending those abortions,  I’m not sure that any of those cases really give a clear picture of her stance on abortion.   However all three rulings were heralded by Pro-Life groups.

I have looked for statements by Pro-Choice groups about Ms Sotomayor and her stance on abortion and they pretty much all say the same thing.  Their not sure about her and hope that she will respect precident.  Here are some quotes from Pro-Choice groups from an article from the AP.

From NARAL Pro Choice America president Nancy Keenan.

“We look forward to learning more about Judge Sotomayor’s views on the right to privacy and the landmark Roe v. Wade decision as the Senate’s hearing process moves forward,”

From National Abortion Federation president Vicky Saporta.

“We don’t have enough information to take a position at this time. We’re waiting to learn more about Judge Sotomayor’s views on the constitutional right to privacy, including the right to choose.”

Hardly any ringing endorsements there.

This image and caption appears at this link: Yahoo Link <– Link no longer works.

 For anyone who doesn’t have any experience with guns those “bullets” have NEVER been fired.  If she was holding bullets that had been fired she would only have the pointed copper part at the very top of those cartridges.  The cylindrical brass part that is below the bullet is called a casing.  And when a gun is fired only the pointed copper part comes out of the barrel.  The cylindrical brass part stays in the gun until it is ejected automatically or manually.  So if those bullets had been fired at her house the brass part wouldn’t be there.  In other words it’s completely impossible that those bullets were fired at her house because they have never been fired.

UPDATE: AFP has released a dishonest correction.

CORRECTS BULLETS TO UNSPENT An elderly Iraqi woman holds up two unspent bullets at her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, 14 August 2007. US and Iraqi troops carried out massive assaults against Shiite militants, killing four in Baghdad’s volatile slum of Sadr City, and arresting several more across Iraq, the military said today. AFP PHOTO / WISSAM AL-OKAILI (Photo credit should read WISSAM AL-OKAILI/AFP/Getty Images)

The dishonest part is where they neglect to mention that they had previously said that those bullets hit her house.

This is just disgusting.

The state medical examiner confirmed that Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, was strangled and that her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, died of smoke inhalation. The deaths were ruled homicides.

I can’t imagine what it’s like dying this way.

Hayes and Komisarjevsky each have more than 20 prior burglaries on their records. At the time of the killings, both were free on parole after serving prison time for burglary convictions in 2003, Bail Commissioner Garcia Harris said. They spent time last year in the same halfway house in Hartford before being paroled in the spring.

20 offences!! Clearly they are no risk to the community and should have been released.  At what point does it become obvious that someone is a repeat offender and isn’t going to change for anyway except maybe for the worse?

What’s really infuriating is that this mess could have been prevented had one of the victims been armed.  But there are too many people that would tell you a gun would only have made things worse, and even more people who don’t know any better and believe them.  Maybe all the bleeding hearts will call for a ban on fire now.  After all if it saves one life….  It’s for the children.

3 dead and more wounded and the Mayor of New Bedford Scott Lang this morning on WBZ radio is already blaming the weapon.  He stated that there is no reason that anyone should have a "military style" rifle.  Apparently he is not aware of the 2nd ammendment to the Constitution of the United States or rights as the rest of us know them.  He also described the rifle as "a cannon".  So apparently he believes the myth that appearence determines the purpose or utility of a rifle.  Fox25 has repeated that the shooter used a "machine gun" with every report.  Witnesses have reported that he had several weapons including multiple rifles.

Two police officers were also hit outside the club and both will recover.

Now that Deval is going to be the new govenor I am sure that this will elicit a knee-jerk uneducated, emotional, irrational responce, that will be described by those that support it as "common sence".  Even if there is no sence involved.

UPDATE:Fox News is reporting that the shooter was using an "M-16 machine gun".  Likely it was an AR-15 as they look alike even though they are different.  Would also explain Mayor Lang’s description of it being a "military style" rifle.  Even if he had 3 or 4 other guns. like witnesses have reported, they will focus on this rifle even if it wasn’t the one he used, although it sounds like he did.