Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings to Begin July 13

The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday announced that confirmation hearings to consider the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court will begin on July 13, 2009.

Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s nominee to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, has held one-on-one meetings with key Democratic and Republican members of the Judiciary Committee that must confirm her nomination before it goes before the full Senate.

Last week, the White House delivered to the committee the responses to a questionnaire and supporting documents that every judicial nominee must provide, detailing their speeches and writings, including unpublished rulings, and personal and financial information.

When Obama announced the nomination last month, he recalled his campaign pledge to choose someone who possesses a broad range of life experiences and would bring empathy to the bench. What he didn’t mention are the political benefits of a choice that is at once historic and energizing for the Democratic Party and has the added value of putting Republicans on the defensive. After two debilitating election cycles, they can ill afford to risk alienating the nation’s fastest growing demographic, which during the 2008 presidential election withdrew much of its support for the party. And it also pits the GOP’s far-right wing and moderates against each other at a time when the party is experiencing an identity crisis.

That didn’t stop the attacks from flying, even before the nomination was formally announced. Conservatives have painted Sotomayor as a reverse racist who uses personal biases to make rulings, using controversial statements she’s made over the years to make their point. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich backtracked on calling her a racist, but still believes she’d bring bias to her decisions. Radio host Rush Limbaugh, however, makes no apologies.

Judicial Committee chairman, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, told reporters after his meeting with her the criticisms of Sotomayor have been the most “vicious” he’s ever heard.

“The one thing that gives me any consolation is that the Republican senators have not done that and have resisted it,” said Leahy.

G. Calvin MacKenzie, who teaches government at Colby College, says that the outer fringe of the GOP right wing is largely responsible for the attacks, putting Republican senators in a very awkward position.

“They don’t want to be critical of the people who resonate with the Republican base so much, but they’re also put into a bind by this criticism, particularly those who represent states with a big Hispanic vote” MacKenzie says.

When Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the judiciary committee’s ranking Republican, spoke to reporters after meeting with Sotomayor, he praised her resume and “remarkable” life story. He also said they discussed her views on the law and he committed to ensuring that she gets a fair hearing and an opportunity to answer all allegations.

When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit judge has her confirmation hearing next month, she will have to defend the rulings and comments that have received the most vigorous attacks.

One is Ricci vs. Stefano, in which she sided with the city of New Haven against a group of white and one Latino firefighters who filed suit after the city threw out the results of a promotions exam because no black firefighters passed it.

Robert Alt, senior legal fellow and deputy director of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, predicts Sotomayor will have a difficult time defending the decision and how she expressed it.

“There are often cases where judges of good faith will reach

different conclusions but can point to detailed reasoning. [Justices] not only say what it is they’re ruling, they say why it is they’re ruling it,” Alt says. “In this case, she had one paragraph that didn’t address the merits. It just seems terribly dismissive and doesn’t exercise the deliberation and temperament that one would expect given the gravity of the claims.”

He’s also troubled by her comments about the wisdom of a Latina woman versus a white man, policy being made in the appellate court, and even more so, the idea of employing empathy to make judicial decisions.

Both Sessions and Leahy have said that Sotomayor told them she would always follow the rule of the law. “She said that of course one’s life experience shapes who you are, but ultimately and completely–and she used those words– ultimately and completely, as a judge has to follow the law no matter what their upbringing has been,” Leahy said.

That, charges Alt, begs the question of whether Sotomayor is being entirely truthful.

He says, “Multiple statements were made when she wasn’t up for this job that are very contrary to what she’s saying now. So, obviously, she needs to be questioned

about this and they need to try to ascertain whether she’s mouthing the words and saying what she needs to in order to be confirmed or if there’s genuine contrition or a sense that what she said before was wrong.”

By the time her hearing rolls around, Sotomayer will indeed have all the right answers.

“As we get to know her judicial record more, we find an awful lot of balance in it, so trying to make her out to be something she isn’t is going to be very difficult for Republicans,” says MacKenzie. “Republicans on the judiciary committee are going to find it in their interests to go quite gently on her. They’ll ask her why she said certain things, she’ll have good answers prepared, and then they’ll move on. I won’t be surprised if she gets 70 to 75 [yes] votes.”

A recent poll conducted by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that American voters approve of Sotomayor by a margin of 54 — 24%, with 22% undecided.

The confirmation hearings will be Webcast live online. The committee plans to announce details about how people can attend the hearings in the coming weeks.