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The Senate Confirmation Process
The Senate Judiciary Committee has completed its work and is now poised to vote on its recommendation to the full Senate. The hearing took her into a third day of questioning, but the role playing (See The Court blog entry) of the senators went very much as expected. The only way for Republicans to gain any traction in raising doubts about Sotomayor was to question her extra-judicial statements, which betrayed her distinctly more liberal ideological bent than her judicial behavior. They wanted to make the case that justices on the Supreme Court are less restrained than judges of the lower appellate and district courts and that their personal political views could carry over into their decision-making on the Supreme Court. On that point, the Republican argument is exactly correct. Where the Republican argument falters is in magnifying the extent to which liberal justices are so affected and diminishing, to the point of nonexistence, the extent to which conservative justices allow their values and perspectives to affect their decision-making. Judicial restraint is not the hallmark of politically conservative justices. They are just as prone as their liberal colleagues to advance their views and interpretations of the law and the constitution through exercising the full power of the Court. The Republican effort to claim that Sotomayor's extra-judicial statements revealed a person who would pursue her liberal agenda on the Supreme Court needed to establish one of two things in order to work. If they could establish that her views were too radical, outside the mainstream, then they would have a chance to "Bork" her. She's as far to the left as Robert Bork was to the right. But she isn't and they couldn't. Alternatively, they could establish that she would be incapable of reining in her personal views and values. Unfortunately for the Republicans, her record displayed a judicial temperament that denied them that claim. Hence, their emphasis on the difference between being a justice on the Supreme Court and a judge in lower courts. Some Republicans will oppose her on that basis. But their public rationale is simply a cover for her being more liberal than they want. The Committee will recommend confirming Sotomayor. All Democrats, including former Republican Senator Specter, will vote to confirm, but only Lindsay Graham among the Republicans will go along. The vote in the full Senate will come prior to August 7. All Democrats will vote to confirm, and the number of Republicans opposing will be somewhere between 30 and 35. Go the to Senate link for more on this process.
Created on July 27, 2009 by GW |
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