Committee Approves Sonia Sotomayor; Senators Call Hearings 'Theater'

On a nearly party-line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the next associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. All committee Republicans except South Carolina's Lindsey Graham voted against the nomination.

Members spoke about the nomination hearings and their votes before casting them. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said that the hearings on Sotomayor's nomination "gave her a chance to respond to her relentless critics," and also gave the American people a chance to learn of Sotomayor's "hard work, fierce intelligence and enduring faith that, in America, all things are possible." Ultimately, Leahy said, she and her family had handled the hearings with "intelligence, grace and patience."

The ranking member, Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), also praised the judge's demeanor in the hearings, saying, "I really appreciated the grace Judge Sotomayor showed." Despite that, Sessions said he could not vote for her because "she has a fully formed judicial philosophy that conflicts with the great ideal of American justice." He said her comments in past speeches about judges' prejudices were alarming, that her treatment of Second Amendment issues was "troubling," and that her reviews of several cases before the Court of Appeals were "cursory."

Graham, the only senator to cross the aisle, pointed out that after 200 years, Sotomayor will be the first Latina to join the Supreme Court. "That is a big deal," he said. "I would not have chosen her, but I understand why President Obama did. . . . If she will inspire young women, particularly Latina women, to seek a career in the law, that will be a good thing. America has changed for the better."

In addition to speaking about Sotomayor, several senators, including Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), said they want to review the judicial nomination hearing process itself. Kohl described his worries about senators' ability to have candid conversations with nominees in hearings that have become scripted and predictable. Nominees, he said, have now learned that "the path of least resistance is to limit their responses and carefully cloak them in generalities."

Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) said he wants to know more about the opinions of judges before they're confirmed and that the nomination hearings "have become little more than theater, where senators try to come up with clever questions and nominees try to come up with clever ways to respond, without answering." Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) added, "We need to change the rules for the hearings."

Sotomayor's nomination now goes to the full Senate for a vote, where she is expected to be confirmed easily. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that the Senate will approve Sotomayor within the next two weeks.