NATIONAL POLITICS & POLICY | Senate Votes To Confirm Sotomayor as Next Supreme Court Justice
[Aug. 7, 2009]

The Senate on Thursday voted 68-31 to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as the next Supreme Court justice, CQ Politics reports. Nine Republicans and two independents voted in favor of confirmation, along with every Democrat in the Senate (Stern, CQ Politics, 8/6).

She will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts at a private ceremony at the Supreme Court on Saturday, a court spokesperson said (Savage, New York Times, 8/7). Sotomayor's first session will begin Oct. 5, and friends say that she has already begun preparing for her first cases (Goldstein/Kane, Washington Post, 8/7).

President Obama applauded the confirmation as "breaking yet another barrier and moving us yet another step closer to a more perfect union." He added, "With this historic vote, the Senate has affirmed that Judge Sotomayor has the intellect, the temperament, the history, the integrity and the independence of mind to ably serve on our nation's highest court" (New York Times, 8/7). Obama also said the confirmation of Sotomayor ensures that "whether you're a mighty corporation or an ordinary American, you will receive a full and fair hearing," and that "the outcome of your case will be determined by nothing more or less than the strength of your argument and the dictates of the law" (Bravin, Wall Street Journal, 8/7).

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said, "Judge Sotomayor's career and judicial record demonstrates that she has always followed the rule of law," adding, "Attempts at distorting that record by suggesting that her ethnicity or heritage will be the driving force in her decisions as a justice of the Supreme Court are demeaning to women and all communities of color" (New York Times, 8/7). Leahy before the vote said, "By striving for a more diverse bench drawn from judges with a wider set of backgrounds and experiences, we can better ensure that there will be no prejudices and biases controlling our courts of justice." Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said, "I have concluded that she is someone with whom our rights and freedoms are safe."

Republicans who opposed Sotomayor's confirmation expressed hope that their arguments will have an effect on Obama's future judicial nominations. Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) noted that the idea that judges should utilize empathy when deciding cases was not brought up by Obama and Democratic lawmakers as the confirmation process moved toward its final stages. He said that if Obama nominates others to the Supreme Court who believe in such an ideal, "I don't think that would play well. … It could hurt this administration in other areas" (Washington Post, 8/7).





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