• by Eli Clifton (washington)
• Thursday, August 06, 2009
• Inter Press Service

United States Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor - the first Latina Supreme Court nominee and the third woman appointed to the court - won her confirmation vote in the Senate today setting the stage for her swearing in at a White House ceremony as early as tomorrow.

'Aug. 6, 2009 marks a watershed moment for this great nation, and it is a date that will quickly take hold in the memories of millions of Hispanic Americans of all ages and backgrounds,' stated National Council of La Raza (NCLR) President and CEO Janet Murguía. 'History was made today and our country will be the better for it.'

During the 55-year-old’s confirmation hearings the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democratic committee members expressed enthusiastic support for President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nomination.

'It’s an opportunity to recognise that the nomination of one of the most qualified candidates to the Supreme Court in American history could not have happened anywhere else in the world,' said (D-NY) Charles Schumer, on the first day of her confirmation hearing on Jul. 13. Schumer went on to say that the nomination of Sotomayor continues to prove to the rest of the world that the U.S. is 'God’s noble experiment.'

While effusive praise from Democrats was in abundance Senate Republicans found themselves in a difficult position. Forced to choose between voting for a Supreme Court nominee which many Republicans labelled as an 'activist judge' or voting against the first Hispanic Supreme Court nominee and risk offending Latinos - the fastest growing voting demographic in the U.S. A number of Republican senators chose to support Sotomayor's nomination.

In the final day of debate on the Senate floor, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) took issue with Republicans who sought to portray Sotomayor as reinterpreting laws to conform with a liberal agenda.

'Sotomayor is a judge of unimpeachable character and integrity,' Leahy said. 'These critics have... chosen to ignore her extensive record of judicial modesty and restraint, a record made over 17 years on the federal bench. Instead they focused on and mischaracterised her rulings in just a handful of her more than 3,600 cases.'

Sotomayor was approved by a 68 to 31 vote with nine Republicans crossing over to support her - all ‘no’ votes came from the Republican side.

The four days of confirmation hearings in mid-July were marked by political showmanship exhibited by committee members who relished in the free publicity provided to them by the high-profile hearings, but Republicans - despite issues they have taken with various rulings made by Sotomayor as a member of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals - were realistic about their odds of blocking her confirmation.

'Unless you have a complete meltdown, you are going to get confirmed,' Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) quipped on the first day of hearings. 'And I do not think you will. The drama that is being created here is interesting.'

Of particular concern to Republican senators were: her 2001 comments to Hispanic and other young law students in which she said, 'I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life'; a discrimination case involving New Haven, Connecticut, firefighters that was later overturned by the Supreme Court; and a case addressing the Second Amendment right to bear arms and a property rights.

Taking particular issue with her 'wise Latina' statement and her past affiliation with the Puerto Rican Legal Defence and Education Fund (PRLDEF) was Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) who deemed her 'unsuitable for the bench.'

These issues were echoed in a statement by the conservative Family Research Council after the confirmation. 'What has come to light in recent months about her record shows this supposed empathy to be a mask for deciding winners and losers based upon political ideology rather than the principle of equal justice for all. It does not include empathy for unborn children, for white and Latino firefighters from New Haven, for property owners who have their land taken from them by greedy politicians, or for Americans who believe in their right to keep and bear arms established in the Second Amendment.'

Sotomayor’s experience as the child of Puerto Rican parents who moved to the South Bronx during World War II was seen widely as evidence of her ability to overcome challenges and hardships. Her father was a blue-collar worker - who died when she was 9-years old - and his mother worked as a nurse at a methadone clinic.

Graduating from Princeton University with high honours and Yale Law School she served as a prosecutor and practiced commercial law before being nominated to the New York federal court by George Bush Sr. in 1991. In 1997 Sotomayor was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

As a member of the Supreme Court she will be part of a co-equal part of government which can overrule both the executive and legislative branches - often by finding that their actions violate the U.S. Constitution. The nine members of the Court have lifetime tenure.

Justice David Souter - who Sotomayor is replacing - was appointed to the Supreme Court by the elder Bush and is widely considered a centrist and a traitor by the Republican right. He generally voted with the more liberal faction on key decisions. Many cases were decided by a 5-4 margin, including the 2008 case that guaranteed habeas corpus rights to prisoners held at the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In such cases, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, has generally cast the 'swing' vote.

As a result, the replacement of Souter by Sotomayor is not expected to bring about a shift in the ideological balance on the Court, although Sotomayor’s relative youth will strengthen the court’s liberal faction, which includes Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer, and Ruth Ginsburg.

Shortly after the Senate confirmed her nomination at a 3pm vote, Obama made a brief statement at the White house.

Of the confirmation he said, 'Like so many other aspects of this nation, I’m filled with pride in this achievement and great confidence that Judge Sotomayor will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice. This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it’s a wonderful day for America.'

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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