Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2009 by David Sharp and Lisa Leff
http://cbs5.com/education/gay.marriage.schools.2.1297494.html
“Parents are always thinking about how do I keep unwanted influences out of my children’s lives? And it’s a lot harder to do that as a parent if that influence is the state,” Murray said. “That’s the fear they are tapping into…. and they are just going to keep repackaging it, because it works.”
The Promise of Berkeley, October 2009
http://issuu.com/shawnm/docs/_x7319a_pob_fall_09_compiled.v2/18?mode=a_p
Rachel Moran: I was surprised at the level of attention that [wise Latina] remark received. I felt it was about how diversity can improve outcomes. When you have all kinds of people on the bench, they reach better results through the vigorous exchange of ideas.
Maria Blanco: She will bring more trial court and appellate experience than any sitting on the court. She has the most judicial experience of any Supreme Court nominee in the last 70 years and the most federal judicial experience in 100 years.
Melissa Murray: She made sure we understood that behind every appeal there was a person who wanted and deserved to be heard. She also emphasized the importance of giving back. She routinely went out of her way to mentor young people and young lawyers in New York City.
KCBS-AM, August 8, 2009 by Mark Seelig
http://www.kcbs.com/pages/4966444.php
“I was privileged to work for her for a year and it was the most challenging and exhilarating year of my career,” Murray said. “It’s really fantastic to have been able to work that closely with her and to see her in action.”
San Francisco Chronicle, May 29, 2009 by Carolyn Lochhead
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/29/MNGF17SNET.DTL&type=printable
“She has sterling credentials,” Murray said. “She’s incredibly smart, she’s incredibly fair. I think she takes every case on its merits. She’s very rigorous in researching cases and she applies the law. The idea of her as an activist is absolutely ludicrous. In my time with her, I’ve never seen anyone more sensitive to what the law in our circuit actually required.”
Jesse Choper, a UC Berkeley constitutional law professor, said Sotomayor might take back her Berkeley words if she could, saying they were inelegantly put. “But having said that,” Choper said, “every Supreme Court justice, every human being, is the product of their own experience, their own education, their own background, their own values.”
-The New York Times, May 26, 2009 by Sheryl Gay Stolberg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/us/politics/27websotomayor.html?pagewanted=all
Melissa Murray, who worked for the judge from 2003-4 … recalled going to a Yankees game with Judge Sotomayor. The judge, a Yankees fan, bought tickets in the bleachers, which Ms. Murray said the judge preferred as a more “authentic experience,” and she appeared to be known to several in the crowd. “We were on the way to the bleachers and people were, like, ‘Judge! Judge!’ ” Ms. Murray recalled. “She is really well known in the South Bronx and kind of a role model in the community.”
-Daily Journal, May 27, 2009 by Lawrence Hurley
http://www.dailyjournal.com/law/index.cfm (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)
Melissa Murray … who clerked for Sotomayor from 2003 to 2004, described the nominee as “incredibly smart and unfailingly rigorous in her research.” Murray said Sotomayor’s five years as a federal trial judge in the Southern District of New York following her appointment by Republican President George H.W. Bush helped shape her approach to cases, as did her five years as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1979 to 1984. “As a former trial court judge, she felt it was important to understand what had happened in the trial court below,” Murray said.
San Francisco Chronicle, May 19, 2009 by Melissa Murray and Darren Rosenblum
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/19/EDO417KMCN.DTL&type=printable
The bailout and stimulus measures warrant additional scrutiny—from the perspective of gender equality. It is important to correct our economic course. But it is also important that we not repeat past mistakes by ignoring women’s economic status. We must recognize that the traditional model of male breadwinner and female homemaker has given way to a new division of labor in which women may support themselves or, if coupled, participate equally in bearing the family’s economic load.