Senate Republicans Ask For More Background On Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 12 Jun 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans on Wednesday sent a letter to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor requesting additional background information to supplement a committee questionnaire, CQ Today reports. The Republicans said that Democrats are rushing the nomination process by scheduling Sotomayor's confirmation hearing to begin July 13 and that they need more information on the nominee. According to CQ Today, Democrats are unlikely to budge from their determination to confirm Sotomayor before the Aug. 7 recess, although Republicans might convince Leahy to postpone the hearing for a week in exchange for a GOP pledge not to delay a committee vote on Sotomayor for a week, as allowed under the panel's rules (Perine, CQ Today, 6/10).

Among their requests, Republicans asked that Sotomayor provide copies of the Yale Law Journal, for which she served as an editor, and that she elaborate upon her role with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. White House spokesperson Ben LaBolt said that the Obama administration has made clear that it plans to provide additional information but that it has presented most of the information quickly to allow the Senate to begin its review (Herszenhorn, "The Caucus," New York Times, 6/10).

Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said that the information requested is not "little itty-bitty matters" but "important" components of Sotomayor's background. He added, "If we're going to move forward in a record-breaking time frame, the least we can expect is complete and full answers to these questions." Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a senior member on the committee, said there is "a lot of irritation and discomfort" among Republicans "about the way it's being handled." He added that he does not think Republicans want to filibuster the nomination but implied that they might use procedural tools to slow the process (CQ Today, 6/10).

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