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Senate Confirms Sotomayor for High Court

Senate Confirms Sotomayor for High Court - Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 3:28PM EST

Chief Justice John Roberts will swear her in on Saturday

MSNBC. com

WASHINGTON - The Democratic-led Senate has voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor, who is now poised to be sworn in as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. According to NBC News, that event is scheduled for Saturday — Chief Justice John Roberts will administer both the constitutional and judicial oaths.

The vote was 68-31 for Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. She will become the 111th justice and the third woman to serve.

Speaking just after the vote, Obama praised the Senate's action, saying, "I'm pleased and deeply gratified."

Senators took the rare step of assembling at their desks on the Senate floor for the historic occasion, rising from their seats to cast their votes.

Ahead of the Thursday afternoon vote, Sotomayor picked up additional GOP support.

"Judge Sotomayor's decisions, while not always the decision I would render, are not outside the legal mainstream and do not indicate an obvious desire to legislate from the bench," said Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio.

"I have confidence that the parties who appear before her will encounter a judge who is committed to recognizing and suppressing any personal bias she may have to reach a decision that is dictated by the rule of law," he said.

Democrats, praising her as a well-qualified judge and a mainstream moderate, had warned Republicans that they could face backlash from Hispanic voters — a growing part of the electorate — if they opposed her.

"Judge Sotomayor should not be chosen to serve on the court because of her Hispanic heritage, but those who oppose her for fear of her unique life experience do no justice to her or our nation. Their names will be listed in our nation's annals of elected officials one step behind America's historic march forward," said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois ahead of of the historic vote.

"History awaits, and so does an anxious Hispanic community in this country," added Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Senate's lone Hispanic Democrat and the head of his party's campaign arm, just minutes before the vote. "When she places her hand on the Bible and takes the oath of office, the new portrait of the justices of the Supreme Court will clearly reflect who we are as a nation, what we stand for as a fair, just and hopeful people."

Republicans bristled at the suggestion that they were not willing to confirm a qualified Hispanic, noting that Democrats used extraordinary measures several years ago to block the confirmation of GOP-nominated Miguel Estrada, a Honduran-born attorney, to a federal appeals court.

GOP senators instead said that their opposition to Sotomayor was based on her speeches and record, pointing to a few rulings in which they argue she showed disregard for gun rights, property rights and job discrimination claims by white employees.

They also cited comments she made about the role that a judge's background and perspective can play, especially a 2001 speech in which she said she hoped a "wise Latina" would usually make better decisions than a white man.

"I feel very badly that I have to vote negatively — it's not what I wanted to do when this process started — but I believe that I'm doing the honorable and right thing," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Republicans had been particularly critical of Sotomayor's position on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. She was part of a panel that ruled this year that the amendment doesn't limit state actions — only federal ones — in keeping with previous Supreme Court precedent. But gun rights supporters said her court shouldn't have called the issue "settled law," and they criticized her for refusing during her confirmation hearings to go beyond what the high court has said and declare that the Second Amendment applies to the states.

The National Rifle Association strongly opposed her and had threatened to downgrade any senator who votes to confirm Sotomayor in its closely watched candidate ratings.

The warning had little impact on Democrats, many of whom rallied behind the judge despite their perfect or near-perfect ratings from the NRA.

Obama named Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter, a liberal named by a Republican president.

Sotomayor spent Thursday out of public view in her chambers at the federal courthouse in New York.
 


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