| | |  Americas & Beyond | August 2009 
Sonia Sotomayor Confirmed to Supreme Court
 Seth Stern - Congressional Quarterly
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August 07, 2009
| | See transcript of President Obama's remarks on the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court below. | |
Editor's Note: The Senate vote was 68-31. All Democrats and Independents (except Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was absent for health reasons) voted to confirm. Nine Republicans joined the Democrats voting to confirm - Alexander, Bond, Collins, Graham, Gregg, Lugar, Martinez, Snowe and Voinovich. Thirty-one Republicans voted against confirmation including Sen. John Mc Cain (R-Arizona).
A little more than three months after Justice David H. Souter announced his intention to retire, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to become the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice. The vote was 68-31.
The outcome had been foretold for weeks, given the Democrats' overwhelming margin in the Senate and Sotomayor's competent but cautious performance during her four-day confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee in July.
Nine Republicans joined all Democrats present and two independents in voting for Sotomayor, who becomes the third woman to serve on the high court. She has served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit since 1998.
Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., 91, who has been absent much of the year due to illness, arrived in the chamber in a wheelchair and left immediately after voting to confirm Sotomayor. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who broke her ankle last month and underwent surgery last week, also was wheeled into the chamber still wearing hospital bracelets on her wrist. But Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is being treated for a brain tumor, was not present.
Senators sat quietly through the roll call, rising to cast their votes as their names were called. The sole late arrival was Jim Bunning, R-Ky, who signaled his vote before reaching his desk. Standing in the back of the chamber was Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., who hugged Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. after the presiding officer, Al Franken, D-Minn., announced the outcome.
Schumer was greeted with applause and cheers from a group of civil rights activists gathered outside the chamber after the vote. "Good work, everybody," Schumer said to the group. "What a day!"
After the confirmation vote, the Supreme Court announced that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will swear in Sotomayor on Saturday at the court. The court will hold a formal investiture ceremony on Sept. 8.
"This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America," President Obama said after the vote had concluded.
A majority of the GOP caucus united against Sotomayor, a sign of difficulty to come for President Obama's future nominees should Democrats lose seats in the next year's midterm elections or during a possible second term.
Given Republican resistance to Sotomayor, liberal activists say that Obama should not hesitate nominating a liberal should there be another Supreme Court vacancy.
But such a move could make it more difficult to hold on to the votes of moderate Democrats who lined up behind Sotomayor despite opposition from the National Rifle Association.
Leahy joked that some Republicans would have voted no even "if President Obama had nominated Moses the law giver."
Sotomayor, 55, is not likely to change the ideological balance of the court; Souter was part of the four-member liberal bloc that includes Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
Two of those liberals are seen as most likely to retire next. Ginsburg, whom President Bill Clinton nominated in 1993, was treated for pancreatic cancer earlier this year. Stevens, nominated by President Gerald R. Ford in 1975, is 89 years old.
Much more could be at stake if one of the four conservative justices leaves the court, or swing-vote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, giving Obama an opportunity to shift the court's ideological makeup.
Strong Credentials
Republicans faced a delicate balancing act as they tried to critique Sotomayor without alienating Hispanic voters. Her strong legal credentials - the American Bar Association gave her its highest rating - and compelling life story did not make things any easier for Republican opponents.
The daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, Sotomayor grew up in a Bronx housing project. She graduated at the top of her class at Princeton University and Yale Law School, and had a lengthy career as a federal prosecutor, corporate lawyer and federal judge.
President Bill Clinton named her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1992, and President George H.W. Bush elevated her to the 2nd Circuit in 1998.
Detractors found little fodder in her 17-year record on the bench, first as a U.S. District Court judge and then on the 2nd Circuit. Instead, they focused on a series of speeches in which she suggested a "wise Latina" or "wise woman" judge might reach a better decision than a white male judge.
Sotomayor's performance at her confirmation hearing last month gave Democrats all the assurance they needed to vote for her and provided little new ammunition for her critics.
Republicans said she had not eased their concerns that she would be unable to put aside her personal beliefs while considering cases as a Supreme Court justice.
But GOP leaders opted against attempting a filibuster, which would have been sure to fail, and ignored pleas from Republican activists to try to delay the confirmation hearing or at least the floor vote until after the August recess.
Kathleen Hunter and Keith Perine contributed to this story.
Individual Votes on Confirmation of Justice Sotomayor
All Democrats and Independents voted to confirm.
Republicans Supporting Sotomayor (nine of 40)
Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)
Sen. Christopher Bond (Mo.)
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.)
Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.)
Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.)
Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.)
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine)
Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio)
Republicans Opposing Sotomayor (31 of 40)
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas)
Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.)
Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.)
Sen. Robert Bennett (Utah)
Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.)
Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.)
Sen. Jim Bunning (Ky.)
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.)
Sen. Thad Cochran (Miss.)
Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.)
Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho)
Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.)
Sen. John Ensign (Nev.)
Sen. Mike Enzi (Wyo.)
Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah)
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.)
Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.)
Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.)
Sen. Mike Johanns (Neb.)
Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.)
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Sen. James Risch (Idaho)
Sen. Pat Roberts (Kan.)
Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.)
Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.)
Sen. John Thune (S.D.)
Sen. David Vitter (La.)
Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.)
President Obama's Remarks on the Confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court
Transcript
The President: Hello, everybody. Well, I am pleased and deeply gratified that the Senate has voted to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as our nation's 111th Supreme Court justice.
I want to thank the Senate Judiciary Committee, particularly its Chairman, Senator Leahy - as well as its Ranking Member, Senator Sessions - for giving Judge Sotomayor a thorough and civil hearing. And I thank them for doing so in a timely manner so that she can be fully prepared to take her seat when the Court's work begins this September.
The members of our Supreme Court are granted life tenure and are charged with the vital and difficult task of applying principles set forth at our founding to the questions and controversies of our time. Over the past 10 weeks, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate have assessed Judge Sotomayor's fitness for this work. They've scrutinized her record as a prosecutor, as a litigator, and as a judge. They've gauged her respect for the proper role of each branch of our government, her commitment to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand, and her determination to protect our core constitutional rights and freedoms.
And with this historic vote, the Senate has affirmed that Judge Sotomayor has the intellect, the temperament, the history, the integrity and the independence of mind to ably serve on our nation's highest court.
This is a role that the Senate has played for more than two centuries, helping to ensure that "equal justice under the law" is not merely a phrase inscribed above our courthouse door, but a description of what happens every single day inside the courtroom. It's a promise that, whether you're a mighty corporation or an ordinary American, you will receive a full and fair hearing. And in the end, the outcome of your case will be determined by nothing more or less than the strength of your argument and the dictates of the law.
These core American ideals - justice, equality, and opportunity - are the very ideals that have made Judge Sotomayor's own uniquely American journey possible. They're ideals she's fought for throughout her career, and the ideals the Senate has upheld today in breaking yet another barrier and moving us yet another step closer to a more perfect union.
Like so many other aspects of this nation, I'm filled with pride in this achievement and great confidence that Judge Sotomayor will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice. This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Question: Are you happy with the 68 votes, sir?
The President: I'm very happy. |
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