Many questions for Sotomayor on abortion issue
WASHINGON -- During her 17 years on the federal bench, Supreme Court nomineeSonia Sotomayor has left no clear footprints revealing where she stands on the right to abortion.
Some Democratic senators, including Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., sought answers this week on Sotomayor's commitment to privacy rights. Meanwhile, activists on both sides of the debate continue to press senators to grill the nominee on her views of 1973's Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal nationwide, during upcoming confirmation hearings.
Since her nomination by President Obama last week, Sotomayor's scant record on abortion has brought to the fore assumptions about the White House vetting process and questions about how Sotomayor might ultimately vote on disputes over a woman's right to end a pregnancy.
Feinstein, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said after meeting with Sotomayor this week that she believes Sotomayor generally would respect precedent.
White House predictions on high-court nominees and abortion rights do not always hold up. One example is the man Sotomayor would succeed, David Souter, who was appointed by the first President Bush and ended up vigorously embracing Roe v. Wade. When a justice has bucked assumptions, that justice has consistently moved toward abortion rights rather than against them.
Feinstein presses issue
As a candidate, President Obama said he would make "preserving a woman's right to choose ... a priority." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama did not ask Sotomayor about abortion but was "very comfortable with her interpretation of the Constitution."
Sotomayor, a trial judge for six years and appellate judge for 11, has not ruled on a case involving Roe v. Wade. She has decided a few cases at the fringes of the issue, yet those defy predictions.
On Wednesday, Feinstein explained why she will persist on the abortion rights question: "I remember what it was like when abortion was illegal, and the lives of young desperate women were in jeopardy." She said she worries that "Americans no longer appreciate what it would mean if (abortion rights) were taken away."
