Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

The confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court begin today in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building. Click through for the full post.

9:01: The room is full of media people, some doing liveshots. No senators or judges yet.

9:53: Judge Sotomayor’s mother is in the room. Senator Hatch is here. Press still milling about.

9:58: Senator Leahy has gaveled the hearing in and has begun talking about the logistics, welcoming Judge Sotomayor and offering to let her introducer her family.

10:03: Senator Leahy is talking about Sotomayor’s background. Stuff we all already know.

10:05: Leahy repeats the line about Sotomayor having more federal court experience than any other nominee in past 100 years.

10:07: Leahy says he hopes we’re past some of the confirmation battles of the past: e.g. Brandeis being asked about “the Jewish mind”.

10:08: Leahy says this is the most open confirmation hearing in history. Documents online, webcast of hearings.

10:12: Leahy wraps up, introduces Senator Sessions.

10:19:Senator Sessions statement calls Sotomayor statements on using experience “shocking and offensive to me”. Sessions calls Justice Ginsburg “one of the most activist judges in history”. Session says he will inquire into abortion, gun control, private property, and capital punishment. Sessions: “I will not vote for and no senator should vote for” nominee who allows personal background to sway their decisions. Sessions brings up Sotomayor statement saying court of appeals is where policy is made, even though it’s out of context.

10:21: Sotomayor has a look on her face somewhere between laughing and crying as sessions goes over a list of concerns.

10:23: I understand some of Sessions’s concerns, but in some of the cases he cites she really was following precedent. She had no real choice. For example, on the gun case, she was following precedent. Sessions quotes her as saying it is “settled law” that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to states. Well, that’s true.

10:30: Sen. Kohl quotes Justice Thomas as saying at his confirmation hearing, it is important that a justice “can walk in the shoes of the people who are affected by what the Court does.”

10:31: Senator Hatch is up.

10:34: Hatch brings up Senator Obama opposition to nomination of Janice Rogers Brown. Obama said judges should set aside personal views and decide cases on the facts and law only. Hatch says the committee should consider nominee’s entire record, including decisions and speeches.

10:39: Senator Hatch is using his time to criticize Obama’s handling, as a Senator, of Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown nominations. Also talking about criticism of Mr. Ricci, plaintiff in New Haven firefighters case. He’s being very negative.

10:42: Senator Feinstein reading Sotomayor’s record, praising it. Lots of numbers: cases, years prosecuting, etc. “You have seen the law truly from all sides.” Feinstein points out, again, that Sotomayor would be only prosecutor, only trial judge on SCOTUS. It’s true that brings a unique perspective.

10:45: Protestor yells out “Senator what about the unborn? Abortion is murder!”

10:49: Senator Feinstein says Justices are “not merely umpires” and gives a long list of cases where conservatives have overruled precedent.

10:52: Senator Grassley says the most important quality of a Supreme Court Justice is the “capacity to set aside one’s own feelings” and rule according to the law.

10:55: Grassley: “This empathy standard is troubling to me.”

11:01: Feingold: SCOTUS has played “crucial role” in checking previous administration’s “most egregious departures from rule of law.”

11:03: Feingold points out open-ended language in Constitution: “like ‘equal protection of the laws,’ ‘due process of law,’ ‘freedom of … the press,’ ‘unreasonable searches and seizures,’ and ‘the right to bear arms.’ These momentous decisions were not simply the result of an umpire calling balls and strikes.” Feingold on “judicial activism”: “That term really has lost all usefulness.”

11:15: Senator Kyl brings up use of foreign law. Sotomayor said we should use “good ideas” from foreign law “so that America does not ‘lose influence in the world’”; Kyl says foreign law is irrelevant.

11:16: Schumer says that New York is proud of Sotomayor. Going over her experience (again). She has “stellar credentials.” Has been twice confirmed. Schumer says her record shows “judicial modesty.” She “puts rule of law above” everything else.

11:21: Schumer brings up Chief Justice Roberts’s umpire analogy, questioning whether “he actually called pitches as they come.” Schumer says an objective review of Sotomayor’s record shows she simply called balls and strikes, more than Roberts’s record on the Supreme Court.

11:23: Senator Lindsay Graham says none of the Republicans would have picked her. They would have picked Miguel Estrada. But he says Estrada never got a hearing like this.

11:24: “Unless you have a complete meltdown, you’re gonna get confirmed.”

11:25: Senator Graham being smart about this. Sotomayor’s going to get confirmed, so he’s talking about the future, when a conservative president may nominate someone with views as zealous as Sotomayor’s, but on the other side.

11:28: Graham says he’d vote against Sotomayor if applying Obama standard. Calls it an “absurd, dangerous standard.” He says Scalia, Ginsburg confirmed with large number of votes, but no one was confused about the way they would vote on the Court.

11:30: Graham concerned that this kind of process will deter people from speaking their mind, but he’s concerned about Sotomayor’s speeches while a sitting judge. He says he doesn’t know how he’s going to vote on Sotomayor. Very thoughtful and polite.

11:35: Senator Cardin talking about history of discrimination, his personal experiences with discrimination against Jews. Society was changed by Brown v. Board. And then Justice Marshall was nominated.

11:56: Coming back from break now. Hearing should resume shortly.

12:01: Senator Cornyn up, talking about importance of Supreme Court. Cornyn says judges should have a modest role. He says the Supreme Court has often veered off course, such as when it has found new rights and “micromanaged” the death penalty.

12:05: Cornyn focusing on text of Constitution: he says SCOTUS has invented rights and ignored others (Takings Clause, Commerce Clause, 2nd Amendment). Cites DC v. Heller (DC gun case) as a good decision. To decide whether Sotomayor will return to written Constitution, Cornyn says, we need to know more about her legal reasoning, speeches.

12:09: Cornyn points out Sotomayor had said there is no objectivity in law. I’d love it if this hearing became a candid discussion of whether it’s really possible to be objective and free from bias.

12:12: Senator Whitehouse says activism complaints are code words from people seeking particular kinds of outcomes. He says the umpire analogy is improper: if judging were that mechanical, he says, we wouldn’t need 9 Justices. Whitehouse points to Jeffrey Toobin’s article showing Chief Justice Roberts’s voting patterns.

12:20: Coburn says Sotomayor will be treated with utmost respect, but they’ll be thorough.

12:23: Coburn:”I am deeply concerned about your assertion that the law is uncertain.” (Coburn should talk to a linguist sometime.) Coburn repeats the judicial oath, emphasizing “impartially,” and points out it says nothing about foreign law or losing influence in the foreign community.

12:28: Coburn: “You must prove to the Senate that you will adhere to the proper role of a judge.”

A second protester was escorted out. Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V85oQ9ifFUQ.

The hearing is now in recess for lunch. It will resume at 2 PM EDT.