Somebody should call the Secret Service because clearly there’s been a kidnapping of President Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. A person calling herself Judge Sonia Sotomayor has appeared each day this week at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing and that person looks and sounds exactly like the person who if confirmed will become either the nation’s first or second Hispanic member of the high court (Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo was Jewish, but was of Spanish and Portugese parentage). Judging by her answers, however, the person responding to the barrage of questions from senators was not the person Obama nominated.

Obama made clear that he nominated Sotomayor because of his belief that federal judges should have empathy for the downtrodden, disadvantaged, and forgotten members of American society. But the person impersonating the president’s nominee responded contrarily when asked by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, about the Obama standard: “I wouldn’t approach the issue of judging in the way the president does. He has to explain what he meant by judging. I can only explain what I think judges should do, which is judges can’t rely on what’s in their heart. They don’t determine the law. Congress makes the laws.”