Sonia Sotomayor

Liveblogging the Sotomayor Hearings: Opening Statements

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9:58: Lat here. Testing, testing — is this thing on? This is where we’ll be liveblogging the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor (2d Cir.), nominated to serve as the 111th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Access this post, then refresh your browser and scroll down, to get the latest updates. We will keep on updating, before eventually moving to a fresh post.
10:00: Judge Sotomayor is looking sharp, in a crisp, electric blue suit. She introduces her photogenic and ethnically diverse relatives. Looks like a Benetton ad.
10:05: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the SJC, walks us through the now familiar details of SS’s biography. He is not particularly articulate today and is stumbling quite a bit. He seems to have a saliva surplus (not a new problem in the U.S. Senate).
Judge Sotomayor is looking impassive — perhaps there is a hint of a Mona Lisa smile, but just a hint — as Sen. Leahy brags about her fabulosity. This is good; a Cheshire cat grin would be inappropriate.
10:12: Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) takes over from Leahy (who used his time to preemptively respond to anticipated Republican attacks on SS).
Can Victor Garber do a southern accent? If so, he should play Sessions in the Lifetime movie of Sonia Sotomayor’s life.
More discussion, including the latest UPDATES, after the jump.


10:18: Sessions goes through the normal Republican talking points with respect to the courts — unelected judges, judicial activism, “empathy,” etc.
He tees up SS’s remarks about courts of appeals making policy, the “wise Latina” quip, etc. Sotomayor looks at him with an expression that looks like a mix of concern and amusement:

10:22: Sessions mentions the Ricci case. Good soundbite: “Empathy for one party means prejudice against another.”
10:24: Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) showers praise upon SS.
10:32: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) starts speaking. For the first few seconds, we thought it was Senator Sessions (until we noticed the lack of a southern accent). Was that racist of us? Do all old white males look alike?
Hatch is pimping an article he wrote for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, a right-leaning law review. He notes how then-Senator Obama voted against Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, despite their superb credentials and an impressive life stories.
10:37: Hatch raises the Democrats’ strong opposition to the nomination of Miguel Estrada.
10:41: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) gushes over Sotomayor, in a mildly patronizing way. DiFi sounds like an elementary school teacher telling a second-grader what a good kid she has been. Give Sotomayor a seat on SCOTUS — and a gold star, too!
10:44: OUTBURST #1! Some crazy protester starts shouting during Sen. Feinstein’s remarks and is promptly removed. Chairman Leahy reads the audience the riot act: “There will be decorum. This is a hearing of the United States Senate.”
10:51: Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) starts speaking. Expresses “concerns” about SS’s biases and prejudices.
MSNBC just replayed the outburst. The man shouted: “What about the unborn?” Presumably an anti-abortion activist.
Sigh. Opening statements are boring. Let’s get to the good stuff already!
11:02: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). Nice green and blue striped tie. He criticizes the concept of judicial activism as just criticizing a judge who reaches a decision you don’t like.
11:09: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) emphasizes the importance of impartiality, transcending one’s particular identity.
11:15: Elie observes: “If you are playing the ‘wise Latina’ drinking game, Senator Kyl is trying to give you alcohol poisoning.”
11:16: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will speak for five minutes, reserving another five minutes for his introduction of Judge Sotomayor. He’s the loudest (and clearest) member of the Committee. No surprise there; he is a New Yorker, after all.
11:21: Schumer brings up Chief Justice Roberts’s “umpire” comparison and argues that SS is the true umpire, possessing judicial modesty.
11:22: Clerquette has started liveblogging over at Underneath Their Robes.
11:23: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to Sotomayor: “Unless you have a complete meltdown, you’re going to be confirmed.”
Graham shrewdly touts a Latino, Miguel Estrada, that Republicans would have supported. That may take the edge off of opposing a Latina nominee.
(Add mentions of Miguel Estrada to the Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing Drinking Game.)
11:34: Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) starts talking about his immigrant ancestors. Everyone seems to be tuning out — and looking forward to that ten-minute break.
After the break: Al Franken!
11:58: Grassley, in an interview with Fox News during the break, expressed agreement with Graham’s “meltdown” observation.
12:01: And we’re back. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a former judge himself, is speaking. He’s a senator straight out of central casting — looks great, sounds great.
12:07: Addition to the drinking game: take a drink each time someone throws in a sports metaphor. Cornyn, trying to explain why Sotomayor’s circuit court record doesn’t tell us much about what kind of justice she’d be, explains that intermediate appellate court judges are like quarterbacks, while Supreme Court justices are like coaches. The coaches call the plays; the quarterbacks just execute.
Elie wonders: “Is it possible for the U.S. Senate to understand what justices do without referencing sports? How about ‘A SC Justice is like a fashion model, she is supposed to wear the clothes, not design the outfits.'”
12:10: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): Think Alex Baldwin with a very pronounced lisp. Quoting Holmes: “The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experienth.”
Whitehouse attacks the Roberts Court, with a shout-out to Jeffrey Toobin’s New Yorker profile of JGR.
12:25: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) raises a slippery slope problem re: judicial impartiality. It seems that the moment you acknowledge a certain amount of partiality, law — “the fabric that holds us together” — is torn apart. Can we take it to a tailor?
Boy does he have a strong accent! “Doesn’t” sounds like “dun’nt” coming out of Coburn’s mouth.
12:31: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): Has various warts on his face. Time to see Dr. Jonathan Zizmor?
12:32: OUTBURST #2! Protester in red polo shirt starts shouting, is immediately removed.
12:34: Time for a little judicial jujitsu: Durbin takes the Ledbetter case and uses it to accuse conservatives of judicial activism.
12:39: Break time.
Continue follow our live blog for the afternoon session here.

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