Law and Courts

Sonia Sotomayor emphasized her personal story and pledged "fidelity to the law" in her opening statement today.

"In the past month, many Senators have asked me about my judicial philosophy," Sotomayor said. "It is simple: fidelity to the law. The task of a judge is not to make the law--it is to apply the law."

Sotomayor's statements are an attempt to answer Republican critics who say she has let her gender and ethnicity unduly influence her judicial responsibilities.

In his opening remarks today, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) repeatedly called Sotomayor "prejudiced."

Sotomayor acknowledged that her experiences "help me listen and understand" but insisted that the "law always command[s] the result in every case."

The nominee also cited the hardships she faced growing up.

"The progression of my life has been uniquely American," Sotomayor said. "My parents left Puerto Rico during World War II. I grew up in modest circumstances in a Bronx housing project. My father, a factory worker with a third grade education, passed away when I was nine years old."

Read Sotomayor's full statement below.

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Just over half of Americans favor confirming Sonia Sotomayor, a new Gallup poll finds.

At 53%, Sotomayor's support is virtually unchanged from a similar poll in late May, in which 54% of respondents favored confirmation.

33% oppose Sotomayor, and 13% have no opinion.



With Sotomayor's hearings kicking off today, many observers think the nominee is a lock for confirmation. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted Sotomayor would breeze through the Senate, barring a "complete meltdown."

The confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was interrupted for a second time Monday by the outburst of an anti-abortion-rights-protester.

"Abortion is murder!" yelled a protester, who was pulled quickly from hearing room by Capitol police.

"The officer will remove the person! The officer will remove the person!" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) declared into his microphone, speaking over the protester and banging his gavel.

The outburst interrupted the opening statement of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Another protester interrupted the statement of Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) earlier in the session.

-Alexander Bolton

The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor were briefly interrupted Monday morning by the outburst of an anti-abortion-rights activist.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) opening statement was brought to a dead halt by a protester who screamed out: "What about abortion?" and "Stop the genocide of unborn Latinos!"

Capitol police scrambled to take the protester out of the hearing room.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) gaveled the hearing room to order and declared: "There will be no outbursts allowed in the committee either for or against the nominee."

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who despite criticizing Sotomayor in his opening statement, backed Leahy's call for orderly proceedings.

"I support you 100 percent," said Sessions.

--Alexander Bolton

Republicans came out firing at this morning's confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, accused Sotomayor of being prejudiced.

Citing a controversial racial bias case in which a fire department discarded the results of a qualifying test when black firefighters scored too low, Sessions said Sotomayor was biased in favor of the minority employees.

"It seems to me that in [Ricci v. DeStefano], Judge Sotomayor's empathy for one group of firefighters turned out to be prejudice against the others," Sessions said.

But Sessions's attack wasn't confined to the Ricci v. DeStefano case. The Alabama Republican indicted Sotomayor's entire philosophy as based on non-judicial factors.

"Call it empathy, call it prejudice, or call it sympathy, but whatever it is, it is not law. In truth it is more akin to politics. And politics has no place in the courtroom," Sessions said.

Sessions statement is a clear sign that Republicans intend to hammer away at the Ricci case when they have a chance to question Sotomayor tomorrow.

Republicans will also call two of the firefighters from that case to testify later in the week.

Despite having directed harsh criticisms toward her, Republicans don't expect to attempt to filibuster Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday.

Kyl, speaking ahead of hearings on Capitol Hill to evaluate Sotomayor's nomination, seemed to all but rule out a filibuster, citing a lack of votes to block the nomination.

"I don't think so," Kyl said on Fox News when asked if Republicans would try to put the votes together for a filibuster.

"Everyone is free to make their own judgment on this," added Kyl, whose job as whip includes counting and maintaining Republican votes on issues. "We are not going to do, as you said, what President Obama and Chairman Leahy did on the Alito nomination and try to successfully conduct a filibuster."

Kyl asserted Republicans "don't operate that way" when it comes to judicial nominations, but acknowledged that the GOP doesn't have enough votes to maintain a filibuster.

The Arizona Republican did, however, assert that independent voters were concerned by the Sotomayor nomination, adding that "the American people are looking skeptically at her nomination."

Buried in a Washington Post preview of today's confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor is this nugget:

One surprise may come late in the day, when, according to sources, several Republican senators could announce their support for Sotomayor's nomination, effectively sealing her appointment to the court and making the only question how many votes she will receive.

Among those who some court watchers say could make an early announcement are Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, the only Latino Republican in the chamber, and Sens. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine.

If true, this would give Sotomayor a big momentum boost going into tomorrow's hearing, when questioning will begin. (Today is just opening statements.)

If Martinez, the only Republican Latino in the Senate, comes out for Sotomayor early, it could make it much harder for Senate Republicans to oppose her without alienating Hispanic voters. In other words, his opposition would have provided a measure of cover for his white colleagues.

Republicans will call two New Haven firefighters to testify in the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor next week, making clear the GOP's intent to place affirmative action at the center of the Senate battle over Sotomayor's nomination.

A Judiciary Committee press release lists Frank Ricci and Ben Vargas as expected Republican witnesses. Ricci was the lead plaintiff in Ricci v. DeStefano, the controversial case in which Sotomayor ruled the New Haven fire department acted constitutionally when it discounted the results of a qualifying test for promotions after too few black firefighters scored as high as their white counterparts. Vargas, who is Hispanic, was the only non-white co-plaintiff in the racially charged case.

The Supreme Court later overturned that decision.

Meanwhile, Democrats will trot out New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports Sotomayor's nomination. Also testifying at the behest of Democrats will be former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau (Sotomayor's boss when she was a prosecutor) and former major league pitcher David Cone. (I'm assuming Cone's testimony has something to do with Sotomayor "saving baseball.")

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Republicans told Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) that they would have opposed whomever Obama nominated to the Supreme Court, the Vermont Democratic told the Associated Press.

Republican senators "were going to object no matter who it was," said Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "And several of them have told me that privately."

He later quipped that the GOP would fight the nomination "even if the President had nominated Moses."

Leahy's comments come as Republicans are demanding additional time to examine new documents relating to Sonia Sotomayor's work at the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The Senate needs more time to prepare for Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings after coming across 300 new boxes of documents relating to her past legal work, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said today.

"[J]ust a day or so ago, we discovered that there are 300 boxes of additional material that has just been discovered from her time working with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund," McConnell said on Fox News Sunday.

"The committee needs to have access to that material and time to work through it so we don't--so we know all the facts before we vote on a person who's up for a lifetime job," McConnell added.

Sotomayor's hearings are scheduled to begin July 13, and Senate Democrats hope to vote on confirmation before the August recess.