Sonia Sotomayor at her confirmation hearing
Image: Diego Radzinschi/The National Law Journal
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has picked up the endorsement of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which voted largely along party lines Tuesday in favor of confirming her to the Court.
The 13-6 vote came two months and two days after President Barack Obama named Sotomayor as his choice to succeed Justice David Souter, and it sets up a vote next week in the full Senate, which is expected to confirm her after as many as four days of debate.
All Democrats on the committee voted in favor of her nomination. All Republicans but one -- Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- voted against it, as expected.
In a two-hour committee debate, senators revisited arguments they made for and against Sotomayor's nomination when they held a hearing this month. Most Republicans accused her of allowing her personal views, as set out in a series of speeches, to influence her rulings. Democrats described a record of restraint from her 17 years as a district court judge and as a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But senators also used the vote to make points about the confirmation process, and to set out standards for battles to come.
"We've set expectations, I believe, for future nominations," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, taking pride that Sotomayor backed away from Obama's statement as a senator that a judge must look to her heart in deciding difficult cases.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said he wasn't ready to concede that all nominees need to echo conservatives' rhetoric. "I do not wish judges without empathy -- who will ignore the long and proud history of the courtroom as the last stand for many beleaguered Americans," he said.
In explaining his vote, Graham expressed frustration with what he called the politicization of the judiciary. Legislators, he said, should be more respectful of nominees' backgrounds and views.
"We ask for the scrutiny that we have as politicians, with the ads that we run against each other and the things we say about each other. We have a chance to respond. But with judges, it's different," Graham said. "The law should be a quiet place."
This article first appeared on The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.
