Senate Democrats will begin confirmation hearings next month for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, and Republicans are complaining there will not be enough time to examine her record.
But the GOP’s pleas for September hearings are falling on deaf ears as Democrats speed toward a likely confirmation for the New York appellate judge.
The hearings are set to begin July 13 with Senate Democrats aiming for an Aug. 6 vote by the full Senate, which would fulfill President Barack Obama’s wish of seating Sotomayor by the October start of the Supreme Court term.
“The earlier date is a small victory in the larger battle for the Obama administration,” said Pepperdine University political science professor Chris Soper.
Republicans had asked Senate Democratic leaders to postpone nomination hearings until after the August recess in order to give them more time to comb through hundreds of court decisions, interviews and other documents provided last week by Sotomayor.
Republicans said they were caught off guard by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy’s announcement of the hearing date, which came before the Vermont Democrat told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the top Republican on the panel.
“This is a schedule that tracks the process the Senate followed by bipartisan agreement in considering President Bush’s nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court in 2005,” Leahy said.
But Republicans are arguing that Sotomayor has presided over 10 times as many cases.
“It is too early to tell whether that would enable us to have enough time to review all of the opinions and decisions and other writings of this nominee,” said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., a member of the Judiciary Committee. “It’s taking a long time.”
Republicans have expressed concern over statements, speeches and court decisions made by Sotomayor that signal she might use race, gender and personal experiences to govern her decisions. Prominent members of the GOP, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., have labeled some of her statements racist.
Leahy cited “the attacks on her character” as a “compelling” reason to start the hearings in July.
“She deserves the earliest opportunity to respond to those attacks,” Leahy said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., complaining about the timeline. Reid wrote back to McConnell, saying that the Senate had agreed to a hearing date for now-Chief Justice Roberts in 2005 before receiving all the relevant documents related to his nomination.
“Confirming Judge Sotomayor before the August recess would give her time to prepare adequately for the Court’s fall term, including review of hundreds of petitions for certiorari for the Court’s first conference and preparation for merits arguments,” Reid wrote. “It would also allow her time to move and hire law clerks. I do not believe it is fair to delay Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation if it is not absolutely necessary.”
