Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

The Senate Judiciary Committee will return from lunch at approximately 2 PM EDT, at which time the hearing will resume. Click below for the full blog.

14:01: And we’re back in session. Senator Klobuchar is up first. Senator Klobuchar started by saying it was an honor to meet Sonia Sotomayor’s mother, who bought her a set of encyclopedias. Klobuchar focused on Sotomayor’s background, comparing it to the background of Justice Marshall. She also discussed the careers of Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg, and their perseverance against discrimination. Specifically, she mentioned Ginsburg’s comments in the Redding (strip-search of high-schooler) and Ledbetter (pay discrimination statute of limitations) cases. She said she would ask questions about the Confrontation Clause and sentencing laws and policy. Klobuchar said she agrees with the 4 dissenters in the recent Supreme Court case requiring cross examination of crime lab scientists.

14:11:Senator Kaufman (D-DE) is up now. Kaufman says vote on Supreme Court confirmation is second in importance only to vote to go to war. Kaufman gives high praise to Sotomayor, saying her record gives no hint of biases. Kaufman says he plans to ask Sotomayor about business litigation; he says it’s important in business cases that the judge be unbiased.

14:19: Senator Specter. He intends to ask about cases the Supreme Court chose not to hear. He expressed concern about splits among the federal circuits in different areas of the country, giving as an example the Terrorist Surveillance Program with regard to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The DC District said it was unconstitutional, but the 6th Circuit said the plaintiffs did not have standing. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Specter says he plans to ask Sotomayor about her standards for deciding which cases to hear. Specter also says he plans to ask about televising oral arguments.

14:29: Senator Franken. Being new, Franken thanked the committee for his welcome and said he has a lot to learn. He said he enjoyed meeting with Sotomayor last week. He then pointed out he is the senator who most recently took the oath of office. Franken said he believes in judicial restraint and thinks the courts owe great deference to Congress, but he worries about recent trends. He gives as an example that during the Rehnquist Court, Justice Thomas voted to overturn federal laws more than Justices Stevens and Breyer combined. He said the Supreme Court is the last place a citizen can go to protect his rights, yet from what he has seen on a lot of fronts, the Court has made it harder to protect some rights.

14:39: Introduction of Judge Sotomayor by Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. Schumer said that Sotomayor’s story is one that could only happen in America. He said that her life shows that hard work and determination will pay off, no matter who you are or where you come from. Gillibrand said she always thought there would be two women on the Court, possibly more, and she thanked President Obama for recognizing the value of their perspective. Gillibrand then (again) summarized Judge Sotomayor’s record.

14:54: Sotomayor has been sworn in. She thanked the senators she has met with, and she thanked her mother. Said she is humbled and honored to be here as a nominee. She talked about her upbringing, with her mother’s hard work raising her and her brother. She talked about her experiences as a prosecutor, commercial litigator, nomination by President H.W. Bush to federal court (including the baseball strike), nomination to the Court of Appeals by President Clinton, and current nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. She said she has witnessed the human consequences of her decisions, saying decisions were made not for the interests of individual litigants but for the larger justice. Her judicial philosophy, she said, is simple: “fidelity to the law.”

15:03: That’s it for today. Hearings will resume at 9:30 AM EDT tomorrow.