Sotomayor's confirmation hearing to resume on Tuesday with tough questions ahead

July 13, 11:48 PMLegal News ExaminerWilliam Pfeifer, Jr.

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AP Photo/Ron Edmonds

After Monday's speechmaking by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a brief opening comment given by Judge Sotomayor, the substantive portion of the confirmation hearings for Judge Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court will begin on Tuesday.

Judge Sotomayor is a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.    She has been nominated by President Obama for a seat on the United States Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David M. Souter.  If confirmed, Judge Sotomayor will be the nation's first Hispanic justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.  She would be the third woman in the court's history.  It has been fifteen years since a democratic president has nominated a candidate to the nation's highest court.

Republicans are faced with a difficult situation in challenging Sotomayor's nomination.  As Senator Lindsey Graham acknowledged to Judge Sotomayor during Graham's opening statement, her nomination to the Supreme Court will be confirmed unless she has “a complete meltdown.”  With her nomination virtually assured, Republicans must find a way to push their agenda and issues while avoiding alienating the nation's hispanic voters who are eager to see her nomination confirmed.

Senator Jeff Sessions, whose own nomination to the lower federal bench was rejected by the Senate Judiciary committee back in the 1980s due to his own racially biased remarks, made some of the most aggressive remarks attacking Judge Sotomayor as being biased and prejudiced.  He indicated that he was concerned that her social, political, and religious views would create a bias in her rulings.

In her opening remarks, Judge Sotomayor summarized her judicial philosophy as being simple: “fidelity to the law.”  She further stated that the role of a judge is not to make the law, but to apply the law.

Sotomayor will be questioned about her issues on gun control, the influence of her ethnic background on her judicial decisions, and her position on affirmative action issues.  Republicans will specifically question her ruling denying white firefighters the right to pursue a reverse discrimination claim against the city of New Haven, Connecticut.  Her ruling in that case was reversed in a split decision by the current Supreme Court, and the republicans have scheduled one of the firefighters to give testimony to the committee.

Sotomayor's record indicates that her replacement of Justice Souter will not change the current balance of the court in terms of controversial issues.  Although Justice Souter was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, he generally tended to vote with the more liberal members of the Court.  He cast one of the dissenting votes in the New Haven discrimination case when the majority of the Court reversed Judge Sotomayor's ruling.

The confirmation hearing will resume on Tuesday, July 14, at around 9:00 a.m.