Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will focus on whether Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor would let her personal feelings and experiences govern how she rules from the bench, as speeches in which she talks about race-based jurisprudence keep piling up.
Sotomayor said in a 2001 speech that a “wise Latina” may be better able to make a better decision than a man who lacked that experience. Sotomayor made similar remarks in 2002 and 2003 as well as 1994, according to a questionnaire she turned in to the Senate on Thursday.
In 2002, Sotomayor gave a speech at the Princeton Club in New York City entitled “Reflections of a Latina Princetonian.” Sotomayor expressed her view that it might not be possible or even desirable for minority or female justices to be completely neutral.
“I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women, men or people of color, we do a disservice both to the law and society,” Sotomayor pondered in the speech.
Delivering the GOP weekly address on Saturday, Sessions did not mention any of Sotomayor’s speeches or court rulings, but said he was “troubled” by President Obama’s desire to appoint an empathetic justice and said such a move could undermine the legal system.
“Do I want a judge that allows his or her social, political, or religious views to impact the outcome?” Sessions said. “Or, do I want a judge that objectively applies the law to the facts, and fairly rules on the merits?’ That is the central question around which this entire nomination process will revolve.”
Sotomayor told Sen. Olympia Snow, R-Maine, earlier this week that she believes a judge must “recognize his or her weaknesses or biases and suppress them.”
Sessions said he was committed to conducting “a fair and respectful” hearing, free of some of the political theater that has dominated past confirmation hearings, including his own failed bid to be confirmed as a federal judge back in 1986.
“I am convinced that the Senate can do better,” Session said the address. “When the American people look back on these hearings, I’m hopeful they will remember them as the most substantive, the most thorough, and the most thoughtful in memory-and focused on the issues that really matter.”
No date has been set for the confirmation hearings. Democrats are pushing for them to begin before the August recess, while Republicans want to wait until September, which would make it difficult for Sotomayor to be seated by the first Monday in October, the start of the Supreme Court term.
