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Loading ...Judiciary Committee OKs Sotomayor for high court
07.28.2009 1:41pm EDT
(Washington) The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice over nearly solid Republican opposition, paving the way for a historic confirmation vote.
The panel voted 13-6 in favor of Sotomayor, with just one Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, joining Democrats to support her. The nearly party-line tally masked deeper political divisions within GOP ranks about confirming President Barack Obama’s first high court nominee.“I’m deciding to vote for a woman I would not have chosen,” Graham said. Obama’s choice to nominate the first-ever Latina to the highest court is “a big deal,” he added, declaring that, “America has changed for the better with her selection.”
The solid Republican vote against Sotomayor on the Judiciary panel reflected the choice many GOP conservatives have made to side with their core supporters and oppose a judge they charge will bring liberal bias and racial and gender prejudices to her decisions. Others in the party, however, are concerned that doing so could hurt their efforts to broaden their base, and particularly alienate Hispanic voters, a fast-growing segment of the electorate.
Democrats, for their part, are lining up solidly in favor of the 55-year-old federal appeals court judge, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who was raised in a South Bronx housing project and educated in the Ivy League.
“There’s not one example – let alone a pattern – of her ruling based on bias or prejudice or sympathy,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee chairman. “She has administered justice without favoring one group of persons over another.”
The senior Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, countered that Sotomayor’s speeches and a few of her rulings show she would let her opinions interfere in decisions.
“In speech after speech, year after year, Judge Sotomayor set forth a fully formed, I believe, judicial philosophy that conflicts with the great American tradition of blind justice and fidelity to the law as written,” Sessions said.
No matter how lukewarm the Democrats are on LGBT issues, they are light years ahead of the Republicans. Sotomyer’s confirmation vote is just the most recent glaring example of how backward the Republican party is when it comes to equality for all.
The republicans want an all white judicial system. They are so affraid of minorities having a voice. Most of the republicans are scared to death, partially by FOX NEWS, and partially by their racsist beliefs. We need to be more diverse, by the entire US, not just caucasians. FOX NEWS tries to scare people into believing, that the world will end, and if minorities are in charge then we will become the Antichrist country, and minorites will remember how they were treated in the past, and take revenge.
It is clear to me that Senator Jeff Sessions, like the religious right which he represents in the Senate, actually does want a bias on the part of justices, but one that goes their way. On the other hand, Senator Lindsay Graham shows a clear understanding that Justice Sotomayor will truly practice what is considered a tradition of “blind justice”
Just one point that needs to be emphasized: The fact that one Republican broke ranks with his party shows that opposition from that party is not as solid as the article suggests.
Felicidad Senora, Honorable Justice Sotomayor!
Espero que usted esta una amiga verdad por nosotros, los LGBT communidad…
I hope you are a true friend to the LGBT Community.
Congrats.
She joins another female justice on the US Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
She has said over and over again that she would rule based on actual law and precedent on not on empathy, etc.
Congressman Chuck Shumer of New York interviewed about case after case after case after casae to show that she did not let her empathy for immigrants etc sway her decisions and that she ruled against immigrants etc inspite of her empathy for them. She ruled again and again however the applicable established law of the time required her. Proving she was not the activist judge making up law as she went along as congressman Jeff Sessions tried to repeatedly paint her as doing. Again and again Sessions failed to rattle her or “back her into a corner”. She has had a long judicial career, knows the law, knows what is required of her and never once lost her nerve or her calm. Inspite of the hard and sometimes demanding and untrusting questions questions asked of her. She was able to explain applicable law and precedent and how cases were decided and why.
She was able to explain her way out of the “wise Latina” comment she made at a school saying that it was not the best choice of words she later realized, but her goal was to motivate Latino students, etc with the idea that if one of their own ethnic background could be a judge and achieve her own goals to better her life so could they.
I think it’s ironic how the GOP is concerned about Sotomayor bringing a racial bias, but don’t think that a largely white supreme court could have a racial bias.