"Sen. Kyl Just Said 'Wise Latina.' Everyone Drink!": Liveblogging the Sotomayor Hearing

Posted by Doug Kendall, Huffington Post at 8:55 AM on July 13, 2009.

This contains commentary during the Senators' opening statements. For the fully updated liveblog, go here.

Updated 10:27: Judge Sotomayor has virtually no record on reproductive choice, and in her one case involving abortion, she upheld a Bush-Era antibortion rule ( the so-called "Mexico City policy"). This is why we're hearing so much about Judge Sotomayor's long ago affiliation with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, and a brief that they filed during her tenure regarding abortion. It's a pretty thin reed.

Updated 11:24: Chuck Schummer just ended by saying if you're looking for a modest or conservative judge, you should vote for Sotomayor. Lindsay Graham picked up by thanking the Senator for the "new conservative standard."

Update 11:20: View from the Skybox, inside the Sotomayor confirmation hearing. (This was taken earlier when Sens. Leahy and Sessions walked Judge Sotomayor to her seat.)

Update 11:13: And again, from Sen. Kyl. Drink!

Updated 11:12: All the Republicans so far have focused as much on President Obama, and his remarks on the Constitution and the law, as on Judge Sotomayor. They seem committed to making this confirmation as much about Obama as it is about Sotomayor, recognizing her overwhelming qualifications for the slot. It remains to be seen whether Sotomayor can respond in a way that makes clear she is her own judge with her own approach to the Supreme Court.

Updated 11:09: Sen. Kyl just said "wise Latina." Everyone, drink!

Updated 11:08 Sen. Feingold just did a nice job of responding to Sotmayor's critics for picking a few quotes out of context in her speeches, and a handful of rulings that are fairly described as simply following the law. Feingold is the first of many Democrats, I'm sure, to argue that the best evidence of what kind of a justice she'll be is the totality of her record involving 4,000 cases. Everyone who has looked carefully at that record has come to the same conclusion: that she is a fair and careful judge who applies the law to the facts of the case and renders her decisions in a neutral manner.

Updated 11:06: Sen. Feingold is now attacking the activism of the Roberts Court, while noting that there appears to be no fixed definition of the term "judicial activism" other than "having opinions one does not like."

Updated 11:02 : As expected, Sen. Feingold is spending a good portion of his introductory remarks praising the divided Supreme Court for checking executive power under the Bush Administration, using this as an explanation for why every new appointment to the Court matters so much.

Updated 10:58: Sen. Grassley said "wise Latina." Drink!

Updated 10:53: Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) just gave a extended recitation of Judge Sotomayor's qualifications, showing just how impressive those qualifications are -- and making Sotomayor supporters smile.

Updated 10:51: Sen. Feinstein is the first Democrat to go aggressively after the activism of the Roberts Court, chronicling a long list of rulings where the Roberts Court has overruled longstanding precedent, and in some cases departed from constitutional text and history.

Updated 10:47: First bit of drama. Protestor from the back of the room started screaming in the middle of Sen. Feinstein's opening statement. There were protestors outside the Senate building when we came in. Some for Sotomayor (apparently the National Latino Peace Officers' Association, holding banners reading "Stand with Sotomayor") and those against her (Randall Terry's anti-abortion group, screaming "Kill them early kill them young!")

Updated 10:45: Senator Hatch was just the first Republican to invoke the "Obama standard," suggesting that because Senator Obama voted against Bush nominees including Chief Justice Roberts, Republicans are justified in voting against Sonia Sotomayor. They seem committed to reducing the Senate's constitutional advice and consent authority to a 5-year old game of "he did it first."

Updated 10:40: Update One thing that brings home the dramatic recent changes in the Committee is the fact that Sen. Herb Kohl, rather than Ted Kennedy or Joe Biden, serve as the second-most senior Democrat on the Committee. Sen. Kohl's remarks were fine if a little predictable. None of the thundering liberalism of Ted Kennedy or the verbosity of Joe Biden.

Updated 10:35: One of the things we're going to do here to get the morning going is to play a little drinking game, starting with espresso, maybe moving into harder stuff later on. The game requires you to drink each time a conservative uses the phrase 'wise Latina." (We notice Sen. Sessions featured the phrase prominently in his opening remarks. We're waiting for the phrase from Sen. Hatch.)

Updated 10:26: Sen. Leahy opened up the hearings this morning with a terrific little recitation of how our Constitution has been improved over the past 200 years, illustrating the central difference between progressives and conservatives about the meaning of the Constitution. Conservatives tend to slight the amendments in their interpretation of the Constitution. Here's what he said:

Each generation of Americans has sought to bend that arc a little further toward justice. We have improved upon the foundation of our Constitution through the Bill of Rights, the Civil War amendments, the 19th Amendment's expansion of the right to vote to women, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the 26th Amendment's extension of the right to vote to young people. These actions have marked progress toward our more perfect union. This nomination can be another step along that path.

Update 10:26: Ok, we're live here in a skybox at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room. Just got a slow internet connection. Senator Kohl is speaking. More soon.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Doug Kendall, President of Constitutional Accountability Center, and I'm here in person at the Senate's Hart Building where I'll be liveblogging the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. We expect the hearings to begin around 10am, with opening statements from each of the Senate Judiciary Committee's 19 members, expected to be limited to 10 minutes per Senator. We'll be updating this liveblog throughout the hearings this week with commentary and analysis, and I encourage you all to post your own questions or feedback in the form of comments. Whenever possible, I will respond to readers' inquiries.

First, if you'd like to gain a sense of what to expect these upcoming days, check out my two-part preview of the hearings, here and here.

Tagged as: russ feingold, patrick leahy, diane feinstein, lindsay graham, sonia sotomayor, empathy, sotomayor confirmation he, wise latina, john kyl