Committee vote on Sotomayor delayed one week

WASHINGTON -- Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans Tuesday secured a one-week delay in the committee vote on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The move was expected after senior committee Republican Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, earlier said he would seek the week — as allowed under committee rules — to continue to review her record.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the panel will vote on Sotomayor's nomination July 28, which he said should keep her on track for confirmation by early August.

"We all know that Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed," Leahy said. "I hope that once she is passed out of this committee, there will be no delay on the floor."

Sessions has said he does not expect Republicans to try to block her nomination.

Democrats control 60 of the 100 seats in the Senate.

Leahy noted that the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a major campaign finance case on Sept. 9, and that Sotomayor would have only a few weeks to move from New York to Washington, hire law clerks and set up her office.

President Obama's first nominee to the nation's highest court underwent four days of hearings last week.

Sotomayor, 55, would succeed retired Justice David Souter.

Sotomayor was appointed a federal trial judge in 1992 by the first President Bush and elevated to the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in 1998. The circuit covers Connecticut, Vermont and New York.