Sotomayor passes out of committee

In a vote that surprised no one, Judge Sotomayor was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, largely along party lines. All 12 Democrats on the committee voted to confirm, joined by Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC). The remaining 6 Republican senators voted against confirmation, leaving Sotomayor with a 13-6 vote.

Republican senators, led by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Ranking Member of the committee, continued to criticize Sotomayor for her decisions in cases concerning race discrimination, gun rights, and property rights, as well as her speeches in which she discussed the role ethnicity and background play in judicial decision making. Senator Graham, explaining why he was voting for her, nevertheless expressed concern that she had made statements about judicial decision making while she was a judge.

Senator Coburn (R-Okla.) said he believed Sotomayor was speaking from the heart in her speeches, but he said he was voting against her not for the content of those speeches but because she did not defend her statements when challenged in the hearings. If she believed, as Coburn thought judges should believe, that her rulings would be objective and unaffected by her personal beliefs, she should not have hesitated to stand behind her statements.

Democrats for the most part praised Sotomayor’s record as a prosecutor and a judge, repeating that her judicial experience exceeds that of any other nominee in the last 100 years. They also said that her record showed that she was a fair and impartial judge. Finally, they repeated her personal story and spoke of her as an inspiration to women and minorities wanting to pursue a career in the law.

Chairman Leahy could not say when Sotomayor’s confirmation would come before the full Senate, but he said it would have to be before the Senate leaves for the August recess, since the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an early session of oral arguments on September 9. The Senate will have several days of debate on Sotomayor, though we are unlikely to hear any new arguments before the vote.