GOP on Sotomayor Hearing: What’s the Rush?
EmailABC News Sarah Tobianksi reports: Shortly after Tuesday's announcement by Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vermont, that July 13th would be the first day of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, Senate Republicans began an ardent pushback, saying the timeframe is too soon and unrealistic.
“It’s far more important we do this right than we do it quick,” said Sen Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the committee, on the Senate floor.
Democrats pointed out that from announcement to confirmation, Chief Justice John Roberts' process took a total of just 72 days.
“She has 10 times as many decisions as Roberts did,” rebutted Sen. Jon Kyl, D-Ariz., Senate Republican Whip and a member of the Judiciary Committee.” “It takes a long time to go through that material. We’ll simply have to wait and see how that review goes. I’ve checked, and it’s not going really fast. It’s hard to do.”
Republicans claim they would have to read 76 cases per day of her record to be prepared for her hearings, math based on the fact that Judge Sotomayor has heard appeals on over three thousand cases in her current job on the Court of Appeals.
In her 17 years on the bench Sotomayor has participated in over 3,000 cases most during her time as a trial judge. On the appeals court she has authored 264 opinions and signed onto hundreds of others.
In Tuesday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president is “pleased” with the Senate’s July hearing date, adding that Sotomayor’s time span from nomination to hearing of 48 days is close to the average of 51 days for the past nine nominees.
"There were suggestions that this hearing should take place after Labor Day," Gibbs said. "If we wait until after Labor Day to have a hearing, that would actually be the longest amount of time ever for a Supreme Court nominee, from the announcement of the nomination to the beginning of the hearing."
Gibbs pointed out that Sotomayor had twice been confirmed by the Senate for other judgeships, in 1992 and 1998.
White House aides say that with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s caseload and timeline, the per-day timeline would be higher than Sotomayor’s.
From nomination to hearing date, members of the Judiciary Committee would have to study about 61 cases per day for Sotomayor and about 74 for Alito.
This is because Alito’s nomination-to-hearing period was 70 days and because Alito was on 5,161 panels issuing opinions.
Alito also had over 800 opinions and, unlike Sotomayor’s publicly available opinion, documents needed for Alito came from presidential libraries — some 75,000 pages – came in days before his hearing began.
“There is adequate time between her nomination and the beginning of her hearing to go through her legal opinions, her statements,” Gibbs said. “And that's why the questionnaire was sent to the Senate in a record time.”
Gibbs quipped that "we appreciate the notion that she represents a justice that has experience unlike anybody that's been nominated in a hundred years."
– Sarah Tobianski
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Poor little Repubs, always making statements that are proven incorrect! Interesting how they can get it done for Justice Alito and Robersts, but Judge Sotomayor will take longer, hmmm bias?
Posted by: Try the truth | June 10, 2009, 8:04 am 8:04 am
Try the truth, biased, prejudice, they all fit
the pattern of the republicans. Whine all
day while accomplishing nothing.
Posted by: spacerook1 | June 10, 2009, 8:31 am 8:31 am
Sotomayor is litterally a card carrying racist (member of La Raza). How can that individual be trusted to make fair and unbiased decisions? She can’t be…
Posted by: Rob | June 10, 2009, 8:38 am 8:38 am
The rush is that little that this president does can withstand scrutiny, and he knows it. Everything must be a crisis – like the stimulus bill – so no one can scrutinize what he is doing.
I’m amazed that the democrats applaud that. If President Bush had attempted this sort of coup, the left and the media in its pocket, would have gone crazy.
Apparently it was never about principle for the left and always about power.
Posted by: Plumber | June 10, 2009, 8:49 am 8:49 am
Plumber: Did you read the article? Did you notice that it was the same time frame for Alito! So basically the same thing did happen under Bush. Are you trying to tell me Bush never rushed anything due to crisis? Why did it seem that every other thing he did was due to national security and could not be challenged or else you were accused of helping terrorists?
Posted by: Quiet down | June 10, 2009, 9:00 am 9:00 am
How can Jon Kyle be a Democrat and the Republican whip? LOUSY reporting!!!
Posted by: LAW | June 10, 2009, 9:00 am 9:00 am
Try the truth – Re-read the article and you should be able to figure out why everyone is laughing at your post…
Everything is being rushed through so that American’s do not have time to contemplate on the direction this administration is taking the country.
Rush through TARP…TALF…
Rush through Nationalizing the Automotive Industry, the Banking Industry, and HealthCare.
Once these are done we will be in the same financial hole as the citizens who took out mortgage’s and didn’t even bother to read what the term “Arm” meant when it was added to their loan.
Spend, Spend, Spend….worry about the ramifications later (i.e. Who care’s if China can cash in their loans to the Treasury…everyone loves America now…we are naive, and no longer have a backbone….You can spit on us and our President will say “Thank you, may I have another.”
Pathetic.
Posted by: Michelle | June 10, 2009, 9:05 am 9:05 am
So every republican needs to read every case? Typical republican’t efficiency. Like that was going to happen. Their are what 218 Republicans in congress. How ’bout we split up the work guys?? Not really all that difficult of a task. Just more from the Can’t Do party.
Posted by: Typical Republican't response | June 10, 2009, 9:07 am 9:07 am
This administration is set on getting things done. That means getting data where it needs to be faster than any other previous administration. Politics is slow and they should be applauded for trying to speed things up. Yes it’s important to review things to make wise decisions (white or latina) but the fact that they set faster timetables for solutions is one that is found daily in regular businesses all around the world – those who wait around, often lose in business – Obama and his people continue to run their administration JUST like they did their campaign, efficiency, effectively, and intelligently. The speed at which they had the survey back to committee is just another example. The GOP can’t say they didn’t GET the information quickly, that’s for sure. Time is money, in this case money = policy implementation.
Posted by: broken_arrow | June 10, 2009, 9:07 am 9:07 am
No need to waste even 1 penny on this confirmation. We’re replacing a liberal with a liberal. The opinions will be the same.
Posted by: RealAmerican | June 10, 2009, 9:20 am 9:20 am
One can only hope the July 13 start date sticks. This would mean that, for once, our Senators would have to buckle down and WORK for the considerable paychecks they receive from their constituents! And if their already-considerable staff cannot sufficiently manage the 76 cases a day, they need look no further than their local unemployment offices to find thousands of willing, capable potential employees.
Posted by: Boulderite | June 10, 2009, 9:36 am 9:36 am
“Leahy is currently engaged in negotiations over when the hearing might begin, and by his comments suggested that he is interested in trying to slow down the process.
“It’s far more important to do it right that to do it fast,” Leahy said.”
Senator Leahy, Alito confirmation – 2005
Get over it folks, it’s just politics.
Posted by: KR | June 10, 2009, 9:51 am 9:51 am
ISN’T THAT THE WAY REPUBLICans show the way to conduct, the Senate, when they have the majority, on Congress? isn’t that the way they did things? Are they so forgetfully??
Posted by: rleb | June 10, 2009, 10:03 am 10:03 am
Did you notice that it was the same time frame for Alito!
~~~
QD,
The Court is not in session until September so tell me again why the hearings have to be done in July. What is the rationale?
Posted by: Plumber | June 10, 2009, 10:03 am 10:03 am
They need to stop wasting tax payer money and do some WORK. It shouldn’t take longer than a few months to review her case history and make a decision. There are too many other things on the table. It’s time to be efficient and effective – stop the political posturing. The average American is gettig tired of it…
Posted by: Nichole | June 10, 2009, 10:45 am 10:45 am
I think the “average American” is getting tired of being bulldozed by the president on things like the stimulus plan that had to be passed before anyone reading could the bill. (gee I wonder why) Here they want Sotomayor to be voted on without a clear review of her record, some of which seems to have been not included by the WH.
Go figure.
Posted by: Plumber | June 10, 2009, 10:57 am 10:57 am
Plumber, I think you’re wrong – I think the “average American” is tired of the government plodding along at a snails pace. The entire world is moving faster and faster. Our government needs to move faster too.
The rationale for getter the appointment done is so Sotomayor can be part of the process to review which cases will be heard. Since she will be part of the court – her say in cases is important.
Posted by: broken_arrow | June 10, 2009, 11:29 am 11:29 am
I’m glad Sotomayor is up. Recently the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that elected judges who take enormous gifts from donors should be required to recuse themselves.
Roberts, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas all said that it is fine for a judge to rule on a case… even if he has taken millions of dollars from one of the parties. In this specific case, they felt that a 3 million dollar gift to a judge did not compromise his ability to work impartially (even though his rulings consistently favored his benefactor.)
I want supreme court justices who have a realistic view of the way the world works.
Posted by: borneo | June 10, 2009, 11:57 am 11:57 am
I would think that all Supreme Court nominees would be considered carefully and vetted with extreme caution no matter what political persuasion..Just as all Presidential nominees, Congressional, Senate and State Representatives…Seems we have gotten “sloppy” over the past several years with our decision making process and it shows…Maybe we need to begin to research our candidates and read resumes before hiring them…I will never cast another ballot without doing research…Repub nor Dem nor any other…YEAH, WHAT’S THE RUSH
Posted by: Parallax View | June 10, 2009, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
Judicial candidates are research WELL before they are picked. Sotomayor was chosen years ago – it’s all about timing – Dem Pres. Dem Congress. So in actuality there is NO RUSH – Nominees knew who was being considered, the people picking the nominees knew who was being considered, and congress knew who was being considered. This is really GOP posturing, plain and simple. The GOP knows her record they HAVE known her record. That’s how they knew what “talking points” to put out minutes after she was announced. I would argue that outside of elections, every step politician take is planned and all options considered pro and con.
Posted by: broken_arrow | June 10, 2009, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
“The Court is not in session until September so tell me again why the hearings have to be done in July. What is the rationale?”
Because the hearings are expected to take a couple of weeks and Congress is in recess for the month of August.
Also The Supremes go back into session on Oct 1st but there are cases to do preliminary reviews on.
Posted by: Ryan C | June 10, 2009, 2:05 pm 2:05 pm
Sotomayor has been confirmed, as the article states, by the Senate twice before. In 1998, these Republicans still in office, Snowe, Lugar, Collins, Gregg, Cochran, Bennett and Orin Hatch (still on the Judiciary Committee) voted in favor of her confirmation.
Posted by: Ranger | June 10, 2009, 3:07 pm 3:07 pm
I would argue that outside of elections, every step politician take is planned and all options considered pro and con.
Posted by: broken_arrow |
————————-
I’ll take the opposing view that these guys do whatever they think they can get away with aided considerably by input from lobbyists and contributors and spinmeisters.
Posted by: Foghorn Leghorn | June 10, 2009, 3:18 pm 3:18 pm
Foghorn,
Exactly – a politician will only take a step after considering the pro (take the lobbyist cash or do what their constituents want) and con (take the lobbyist cash or do what their constituents want) – But they ARE considering every step carefully, and the ramifications that step will cause – cash from lobbyist in hand (war chest) or constituency happiness. Knowing each is a pro and con.
In other words they know their options and what will happen before they take any step.
In this case Obama knew Sotomayor would get confirmed AND he knew it would cause fits for the GOP with the Hispanic vote AND the GOP knew he would pick her (or knew she was on the short list) and what they would do to oppose her – ALL long before any announcement was made about her nomination.
One has to hand it to the chess masters who play these games.
Posted by: broken_arrow | June 10, 2009, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
Broken Arrow.. They, politicians, may calculate every step prior to taking action, but is the voters who put them in office and give them the opportunity to do so..How many people do you think actually know who our Senate majority leader is or who is the Congressional majority leader is AND what state they are from or what they did before taking this high power office..What I am saying is that we, the American voters have become sloppy in OUR research of elected officials who then have the power to vote in Supreme Court Judges…who will interrupt the law for the average guy…It seems to me you are saying the “Fix is already in” and we really have no control..I believe we still do by our right to vote…but than again I still believe our Republic still exists and Democracy will rein.. I could be wrong but I like to keep it positive…
Posted by: Parallax View | June 10, 2009, 5:21 pm 5:21 pm