Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor Resumes Meetings With Senators; Confirmation Vote Still Unclear

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 05 Jun 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, on Thursday will hold a third round of private meetings with senators who will be voting on her confirmation, the AP/Chicago Tribune reports. The AP/Tribune reports that by Friday, Sotomayor will have met with more than one-quarter of the Senate and a majority of members on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will lead an as-yet-unscheduled set of hearings for her confirmation.

The Judiciary Committee is expected to receive and examine a large collection of documents for the hearings -- including Sotomayor's writings, speeches and unpublished rulings -- as part of a questionnaire response on personal and financial data, possible conflicts of interest and the procedure that led to her nomination. According to the AP/Tribune, the White House in recent days has been rallying support for Sotomayor, with first lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday talking about the nominee at a high school graduation (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Chicago Tribune, 6/4).

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Wednesday failed to reach an agreement on a timeline for Sotomayor's confirmation hearings and vote, CongressDaily reports. According to CongressDaily, Democrats and Republicans generally are "at odds" over the issue, particularly over when the confirmation hearings should start (Friedman, CongressDaily, 6/3). Leahy said that he would like hearings to begin next month, with the goal of scheduling a confirmation vote before the month-long congressional recess that begins in early August. Sessions has called for the process to be spread out over the summer to allow committee members to analyze the large volume of Sotomayor's records, with hearings beginning in September (AP/Chicago Tribune, 6/4).

Leahy -- who will have the final say on the start of the hearings -- on Tuesday said that "it would be irresponsible to leave [Sotomayor] hanging out there" until September (CongressDaily, 6/3).

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