This afternoon the Senate WILL vote to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as our next Supreme Court justice.
I'm watching the Senators give their testimony this morning on C-SPAN. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin gave a compelling argument why she should be confirmed.
Clearly she is qualified. She has served a combined 17 years on the federal bench, worked as a prosecutor and in private practice. Her resume and qualifications are long and her personal story compelling.
Sotomayor knows the law and even in cases of discrimination she has only sided with the plaintiff in less than 10 percent of the cases, Durbin said citing Supreme Court scholar Thomas Goldstein.
Addressing the Connecticut firefighter cases recall that she did not make this decision unilaterally and was one of a three-judge panel and that four current Supreme Court justices agreed with her.
"There is no bias built into her decision making. The facts just don't support that conclusion," Durbin said.
Durbin pointed out that Republicans asked her about the "wise Latina" comment 17 times during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Sotomayor explained over and over again that it was a verbal gaffe. But she clearly said she would not let her ethnicity or background influence her judicial decision-making.
"Senator after senator asked her 'What did you really mean with those three words?' " Durbin said.
Those who read the wise Latina speech should have kept reading because
she noted that it was nine white Supreme Court decisions who decided
Brown vs. Board of Education, Durbin said.
Durbin said the senators should "look at her long record on the bench and not on one line in one speech."
It looks like nine Republicans will vote for her. Among them is Sen.
George Voinovich, a Republican from Ohio, who also spoke about her role
in the firefighter case.
"To say she is outside the mainstream when those decisions are so close is really stretching it a bit," Voinovich said.
"It is clear to me she is qualified to serve as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court," he added.
Durbin noted the importance of the vote for Sotomayor and that of 110
Supreme Court justices in the United States 106 have been white males,
two African-American males and two white women. Sotomayor will become the 111th justice and the first Latina confirmed to the court around 2 p.m. central time today.
"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," Durbin said. "Their names will be
listed in our nation's annals of elected officials one step behind America's historic march forward."
Filed under: Hispanic, politics, Supreme Court
Tags: Sen. George Voinovich, Sen. Richard Durbin, Senate confirmation, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court
