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Life, Politics and the Law From ABC News Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg
Jan Crawford Greenburg is a correspondent for ABC News' bureau in Washington DC. She covers politics, the Supreme Court and provides legal analysis for ABC News. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago's law school and is a member of the New York bar.
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Sotomayor on the Hot Seat
July 14, 2009 11:03 AM
Starting what's going to be a grueling day, Sotomayor faced some tough questions from Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who wasn't buying her explanation of her "wise Latina" comments as inspirational or that her insistence that "no racial or gender group would have an advantage in judging."
Sessions said Sotomayor had spent a career talking about how her sympathies and feelings will influence her decision making--and now, suddenly, she is saying “exactly the opposite” in her confirmation hearing.
Sotomayor, again flanked by her friends and family, went on the defensive: "I do not permit my sympathies, personal views or prejudices to influence the outcome of my cases."
Sessions pushed back pretty hard: "But judge, it's not that simple," he said when she tried to explain an affirmative action case.
Her demeanor is interesting: forceful, firm and at times a bit defensive. She's looking down as the senators speak, taking notes for some reason (even when they're just summarizing facts). She is more defensive than I'd expected this early in the day.
She started the day with some softballs from Leahy, which gave her a chance to frame the biggest controversies: the "wise Latina" comment, the white firefighters decision, the gun rights case.
But it looks like the Republicans are going to keep bringing back her actual words and frame this--as Republicans are saying--as a "confirmation conversion."
Her big challenge will be to get through this day without giving Republicans a spark they can light a fire with. Justice Alito did that very effectively, in the most recent confirmation hearing, by speaking calmly and deliberately--without coming across as dismissive or condescending.
It's a huge challenge for a nominee, sitting there for hours on end, listening to the senators pick apart your speeches and words (in a way you may think is completely inaccurate or unfair). Even though Democrats really believed they had the goods on Alito--he had expressed pride in his work to overturn Roe, for example--the senators could never get anything going. They just couldn’t strike a match off him--there was no friction at all. That's Sotomayor's challenge today.
July 14, 2009 in Barack Obama, Congress, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court | Permalink | User Comments (0)
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