Why Did Obama Choose Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court?

HOW DEEP IS THE CONNECTION?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jan. 16, 2012) — Editor’s Note:  On January 4, 2012, researcher and blogger Martha Trowbridge identified a connection between U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Dr. Fred Newman in her post “Obama, RUI:  Running Under the Influence of ‘Uncle Fred.'”

Dr. Fred Newman grew up in New York City, earned a Ph.D. in analytic philosophy and foundations of mathematics, became a university professor and playwright, and founded several controversial political parties.  His Castillo Theater will be presenting a series of his plays later this month entitled “Performing Fred Newman.”

The Anti-Defamation League described Newman’s New Alliance Party as “a fixture on the fringe of left-wing American politics, a vehicle used by its behind-the-scenes leader, Dr. Fred Newman, to achieve power.”  The organization reportedly controlled its members by convincing them to leave family relationships behind and live in a type of commune with other NAP members.  The New Alliance Party has been described elsewhere as a “sexist, racist, ‘therapy cult.'”

Newman had expressed a distaste for capitalism and had proclaimed himself a Marxist.

Under the New Alliance Party banner, Newman ran two presidential campaigns for Dr. Lenora Fulani, who “became his most famous disciple.”  Along with Fulani, Newman founded the All Stars Project, which former political ally Lyndon LaRouche said was operated by “the cult/revolutionary party/psychotherapy collective” also run by Newman.  LaRouche has described Newman as a “deeply disturbed narcissist and emotional predator.”

Newman and Fulani had advocated for “unconditional defense” of the Libyans accused of bombing Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

Newman was a “community organizer,” as was Barack Obama.  Both have deputized their “organizers” to spread the message about their “cause.”  Community organizing “seeks to broadly empower community members, with the end goal of distributing power more equally throughout the community.”  Obama was a member of the New Party in Chicago which advocated socialism.

In 1993, complaints against Newman were made with District Attorney Robert Morgenthau alleging money laundering and check forgery.

In May 2009, Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to replace the retiring U.S. supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.  Her confirmation hearings were held in mid-July 2009, and she was sworn in on August 8, 2009.

Sotomayor grew up in the South Bronx section of New York City.  Scant information regarding her high school years is available, but The Huffington Post reports that Sotomayor attended Cardinal Spellman High School in New York and was class valedictorian. Another source reported that Sotomayor “received a heavy dose of Catholic worship and religious teaching” while in high school.  A third source states that Sotomayor “started school at Blessed Sacrament in Soundview. Then she moved on to Cardinal Spellman in Wakefield,” but the statement is made without references.  An article in The Daily Princetonian stated that Sotomayor was active in student government during her high school years.

She attended Yale Law School and, like Obama, served as editor of the school’s law journal.  She graduated from Yale in 1979, after which she became an assistant prosecutor to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who testified during Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings in 2009.  She advocated for nominations of Hispanics to faculty positions at both Yale and Princeton.

Following her confirmation, Sotomayor stated that she had “taken heat” during the process because she was Hispanic.

Sotomayor served on the federal level on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals serving Connecticut, New York and Vermont following her time in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The White House website states that Sotomayor is “widely lauded for saving baseball” for issuing an order to end a strike in the industry in 1995 and thereby “siding with labor.”  Sotomayor reportedly supports “honoring” the U.S. Constitution.  She is widely remembered for her “wise Latina” remark made at the University of California at Berkeley in 2001 and published in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal in 2002.

Sotomayor stressed “stereotypes” during and after her confirmation hearings, stating that Chief Justice John Roberts’s view of “racial justice” was “too simplistic.”  She also told an audience at the University of Chicago Law School that having more Hispanics visit the U.S. Supreme Court “is a priority” and that she holds a “special role” on the court.  More than one source states that Sotomayor’s Hispanic heritage played a part in her nomination and confirmation.

Sonia Sotomayor was a volunteer for the Development School for Youth, a program of the All Stars Project founded by Fred Newman, reportedly since 2003.  Members of the DSY lauded her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.  An associate of Newman’s describes Sotomayor as a “friend” of the DSY.  The DSY and All Stars Program have opened offices outside of New York City, and a recent luncheon raised $450,000 for the organization.

The DSY’s stated mission is to “enrich the lives of inner-city youth through developmental experiences provided in partnership with businesses and caring corporate professionals” utilizing “developmental learning” techniques.  Its activities are aimed at “poor and minority young people.”  The young people attaining roles in performances are taught that “life is a performance,” as are Fred Newman’s social therapy patients.

A link from DSY’s website entitled “View CBS News Interviews with DSY Alumni about Justice Sotomayor’s support of the DSY” leads to a mid-day weather report rather than the captioned subject.

In 2003, Sotomayor was invited by Fulani to address a graduating class at the DSY.  During her confirmation hearings, she reportedly “provided the committee with with the text of her 2003 speech, which uses a bit of Social Therapy jargon:…”  A link allegedly leading to the text of the speech provided to the Senate committee reveals Sotomayor thanking Fulani for her introduction, but the link leading from there to the text of the address yields a “Requested Page Not Found (404)” error.

Sotomayer had addressed the class:

We all have to work and to perform our lives….I hope you hold on to the memory of each time you performed in this program and felt good about yourself and about the group you have been part of.” (emphasis added)

“Sotomayor continued: ‘Look at me. Look at Dr. Fulani and Pam Lewis [longtime Newman aides who play an important role in the All Stars Project–DK]. Look at all of the people who have led you in workshops. These can be your lives.’

Author Dennis King then commented:

This remark plus the intrusion of jargon earlier in the speech suggests that Sotomayor may already have been working with the DSY for some time. And it’s disturbing that Sotomayor would have held up Lenora Fulani, whose anti-Semitism was widely known, as a role model for youth.

Was Sotomayor involved with Fred Newman and the DSY much earlier than 2003?  Having grown up in the Bronx, could she have met Fred Newman much earlier in her life?  Is she a product of Newman, as Newman had claimed Fulani was?

Newman and Fulani endorsed Louis Farrakhan, and Obama lives in his neighborhood. The link from the Free Republic report to the original source, the Drudge Report, now leads to a different article.  The Post & Email had reported on the incident with Farrakhan in May 2010.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard professor about whose arrest for disorderly conduct Obama sharply criticized Cambridge, MA police in July 2009, has endorsed the DSY.  At the time, Gates had said he was “outraged” at the arrest which he claims was racially-motivated.

The DSY has been funded by wealthy New Yorkers who might not be aware that the organization, under Fred Newman’s management, is accused of operating as a youth cult.  However, the All Stars Project is a Better Business Bureau-accredited charity.

How long has Sonia Sotomayor been associated with Fred Newman, the DSY, and Obama?

Louis Farrakhan had long been suspected of being involved in the assassination of Malcolm X.  Obama lives in Farrakhan’s neighborhood.

Is there a connection among Sotomayor, Gates, Obama and the late Fred Newman?  Did Newman have an influence on the election of Barack Obama in 2008, unbeknownst to the American people?  Researcher Martha Trowbridge posits that he did.  She asserts that Newman is Obama’s uncle, also unbeknownst to the American people.  And she believes that Malcolm X is Obama’s father and that Obama’s birth name is Bari M. Shabazz.