Sotomayor confirmation hearing liveblog - Day 2, Part 3
The live blog will continue here when the confirmation hearing reconvenes at 2pm. The latest will always be just a ‘refresh’ button click away.
1:57pm - Sen. Chuck Grassley will be next up. People will be watching his questioning closely, as it is believed his could be of the GOP votes in favor of confirmation.
2pm - Chairman Leahy has reconvened. Grassley’s up. He’s asking about property rights.
2:10pm - Sotomayor is not going to answer hypothetical questions, no matter who asks.
2:12pm - We have a heckler! A loud one! Appears to be a pro-life protester. Leahy is giving his usual admonition against outbursts. Grassley: “People always say I have the ability to turn people on.” Laughs all around.
2:15pm - More on the Didden case Sotomayor is discussing can be found here from the NYT.
2:23pm - Grassley continues to hammer on the takings issue in Kelo and Didden. Sotomayor contends it was a narrow statute of limitations issue, won’t bite on Grassley’s contention that it was a case of extortion.
2:27pm - Sotomayor is answering questions on cost-benefit analysis and agency deference to the EPA. Not as sexy as topics like abortion, Second Amendment, or “wise Latina,” but still important.
2:30pm - Background on the Entergy case can be found here on Scotuswiki.
2:32pm - Grassley asks his final question. No real fireworks from him. Sen. Russ Feingold is up now. He’s asking about executive power.
2:35pm - Sotomayor on whether Sept. 11 changed her view on Constitution: “The issue of the country’s safety and the consequences of [9/11] are the subject of continuing discussion among not just senators but the whole nation. In the end the Constitution by its terms protects certain individual rights.” Says the event has not changed her view on the Constitution.
2:44pm - Sotomayor is being VERY careful not to comment on pending cases, hypotheticals, or issues that may come before the Court in the future. She is trying very hard to avoid any landmines.
2:46pm - If Maloney or other cases Sotomayor ruled on was appealed to SCOTUS, the judicial code of conduct would require that she recuse, she said.
2:55pm - Feingold asks if Sotomayor, as a big city native, can empathize with small town folks. “I don’t think one needs to live an experience to appreciate it,” Sotomayor responds.
3:02pm - Sen. Jon Kyl is up. If he’s as fiery as he was yesterday, this should be good. He starts with Maloney. Sotomayor said she would recuse from a direct Maloney appeal, but stops short of saying she’d do so if there is a consolidated appeal with other cases. Said she’d consult with colleagues.
3:08pm - Kyl seems to want Sotomayor to promise to recuse herself from any case dealing with the Second Amendment issue in Maloney, even those from other Circuits. She won’t be so equivocal.
3:11pm - Sotomayor won’t sign onto Obama’s statement that the law only takes you 25 miles into a marathon and the heart takes you the last mile. “Judges apply the law,” she says again.
3:15pm - Kyl said his question - if she has always relied on the law in her rulings - is not a trick question. Sotomayor said she has.
3:18pm - Kyl on past Sotomayor comments: “It is inescapable that your purpose was to discuss … the influence gender ethnicity …will have on the law.”
3:20pm - Kyl calls Sotomayor’s statement that there is no neutrality, just a series of perspectives “relativism run amok.”
3:23pm - Sotomayor to Kyl’s lengthy statements questioning her impartiality: “I have a record for 17 years - decision after decision, decision after decision. It is very clear that I don’t base my decisions on my personal experiences or my opinions or my biases.”
3:26pm - Sotomayor: “I don’t think anybody quarrels with the fact that diversity on the bench is good for America.”
3:28pm - Kyl continues to hammer with questions of whether her gender or ethnicicty will sway her decisionmaking, pointing to her past statements. When she says it won’t, he says she is contradicting herself.
3:35pm - Sotomayor said again that her “wise Latina” speech was meant to inspire students. “I do understand there are some who have read this differently, and I understand that they have concerns. But I have repeated this before … I do not believe that any ethnic group has an advantage on sound judgment.” Leahy reminded everyone for the record that Justice Alito said during his confirmation hearings that he thinks of the discrimination his family members faced when considering bias cases.
3:36pm - Leahy called for 10 minute break. We’ll continue in a new post when the hearing resumes.
