By Peter Schweitzer
PoHo contributor

UPDATE 8:46 a.m.: Barack Obama will announce later this morning his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the Federal Appeals Court as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, The New York Times reports. If confirmed by the Senate she will be the third woman on the court and the first Hispanic justice.

The MSM will undoubtedly cast Obama’s first Supreme Court choice in terms of liberal vs. conservative. While the consequences of Barack Obama’s decision will have political overtones, the real debate centers around how the document in question (the U.S. Constitution) should be interpreted.

In the one camp, there’s Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas.

In the other, Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and John Paul Stevens are firmly situated.

And Obama could announce the next member of the high court as early as today.

It’s really a debate about textual criticism. Is the Constitution to be treated as a living, breathing document meant to be interpreted in light of the current social circumstances, or is it a historic document to which one must genuflect in adoration without manipulating its original intent?

Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas prefer genuflection. They are strict constructionists who firmly believe the document must be interpreted in the light of the author’s original intent. What did those white, male gentry have in mind when they wrote our nation’s founding legal document? Any derivation from this original intent is considered anathema.

On the other hand, there’s Breyer, Ginsburg, and Stevens who think the Constitution should be read and interpreted in the light of the country’s prevailing social, economic, cultural, and political circumstances. In their view, the Constitution is a vibrant document that sketches in broad strokes our nation’s underlying philosophical principles. As they see it, the duty of the justice is to apply those principles to the present day circumstances.

It’s an important philosophical and intellectual divide that has more than an ivory tower power over the lives of its nation’s citizens.

There’s plenty of intellectual firepower on both sides — particularly from Roberts, Scalia, Breyer and Ginsburg. It’s clear from President Obama’s statements about his view of the court and the Constitution that he sides with the latter group.

Unfortunately, the Senate confirmation hearings will be nothing more than a boring show of duck and cover. Ever since Robert Bork’s failed confirmation in 1987, the proceedings have devolved into nothing more than a “no comment” from the nominee. Every administration since that time knows that the successful nominee will give only the vaguest answers to questions about judicial philosophy and temperament. Administrations have tended to pick court nominees that have no paper trail. Of course, such vanilla nominees can provide plenty of consternation for the Presidents who chose them. Just ask Bush 41 (David Souter) and Nixon (Harry Blackmun).

Here is the top of the news release from Treasury:

Treasury Department Statement
on GM Dealer Consolidation Announcement

WASHINGTON – Today, General Motors initiated the dealer consolidation plan it laid out in its interim plan on April 27, 2009.

Under that terminology, we’ve got one helluva jobs consolidation situation going on right now.

The real story, from CNN/Money:

General Motors notified 1,100 of its 6,000 dealerships Friday that it is terminating their contracts with the struggling automaker, the first step in cutting up to 40% of its retail network.

GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said that the dealers receiving notice Friday are being told that their contracts will not be renewed in October 2010. Many of them are expected to close shop this year.

The shockwaves from the government-labor takeover at Chrysler is reverberating in the Tampa Bay area, as seven dealerships are set to be closed as part of nearly 800 dealer closings across the nation.

The local dealerships are:

Venice Nissan Dodge

Bob Boast Dodge, Bradenton

Tarpon Springs Dodge

Winter Park Dodge

Regal Pontiac Jeep, Lakeland

Sarasota Chrysler

St. Pete Jeep Chrysler Plymouth

(UPDATE: A seventh Chrysler-related Bay area dealership, Fitzgerald Countryside Jeep, is also on the closing list.)

Here’s the political angle: Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan has one of his dealerships on the block, and he’s not happy about it. Michael Hinman of The Business Journal reports:

Hours after Chrysler LLC asked a bankruptcy judge to let it part ways with nearly 800 dealerships nationally; one of the owners of the affected dealerships is utilizing his soapbox to protest it.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, called the dealership closings “arbitrary” and would do nothing to make car manufacturers more viable financially.

“Last year, I opposed the auto bailout bill before Congress because the automakers failed to develop a restructuring plan,” Buchanan said in a statement. “Now instead of a responsible plan to address the industry’s core economic problems, the automakers are arbitrarily closing hundreds, and possibly thousands of dealerships across the country.”

His point? That even though a few banks still need billions to shore up their balance sheets, they are making money and likely can raise those extra funds in the market – not from taxpayers.

Bloomberg reports that the market indeed likes the results of the financial stress tests:

Stocks rallied after the news, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index to its highest level in four months. The results are the culmination of weeks of investigations, led by the Federal Reserve, into the banks’ lending practices, funding strategies and securities and loan portfolios.

“The markets are telling us we’re in a recovery and the banks are beginning to heal,” William Isaac, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said in an interview today. The end of the stress tests after “three months of water torture” is providing investors some relief, he said.

The regulators put an emphasis in their reviews on tangible common equity, and will give firms needing bigger reserves six months to meet their requirements. Citigroup’s assessment reflects the New York-based bank’s previously announced plan to convert some of its preferred shares into common stock.