Sonia Sotomayor receives congratulatulations at the federal courthouse
in New York after being confirmed by the Senate as the nation's first
Hispanic Supreme Court justice on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.
(AP Photo/New York Law Journal, Rick Kopstein)
Republican senators who decided to support the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court said their job was to examine whether she was qualified and not whether they agree with every decision she has made and will make.
On Thursday, nine Republicans joined 59 Democrats in voting to confirm the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Thirty-one senators, all Republicans, voted against her nomination.
The nine Republicans voting to confirm Sotomayor were Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Kit Bond of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Mel Martinez of Florida, Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
“Well, Supreme Court justices often surprise the presidents who appoint them,” Sen. Lamar Alexander told CNSNews.com. He said he felt comfortable voting for Sotomayor despite their philosophical disagreements. “My judgment came down to this: Is she well qualified for the position or not? My job is not to nominate her – under the Constitution – it’s to decide if she’s qualified to the position. I think she clearly is.”
Alexander also said that if Republicans want more conservative nominees, they need to work harder at winning elections. “I would prefer a Republican justice,” he said, “but for that to happen we’re going to have to work a little harder in the next election.”
Alexander explained that his vote was motivated by a desire to move the Senate back toward a spirit of bipartisanship where senators examine a nominee’s objective, academic qualifications rather than simply their political party.
“I also would like to get us back to the practice in the Senate of not just voting on justices based on whether they’re on our political side or not,” he said. “I objected strongly to that when [then] Sen. Obama opposed [Chief] Justice Roberts and it wouldn’t be right – if that were wrong for him to do – for me to oppose Judge Sotomayor.”
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) told CNSNews.com that he was “not uncomfortable” with his vote for Sotomayor, noting that he has voted for many justices with whom he did not agree.
“She will be a very careful student of the law, follow judicial precedent. I think she will be a very excellent constitutional lawyer,” Lugar said. “I believe that she’s a very well-qualified jurist, with 17 years during which she has demonstrated her judicial abilities, and that meets the criteria I’ve always used.”
Sen. Susan Collins said Sotomayor “is clearly qualified” to sit on the Supreme Court. “I suspect that I’m not always going to agree with her decisions, but that’s a statement I could make about any of the justices.”
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the lead Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a Sotomayor opponent, said that Republicans had been urged by Minority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) to examine the judge’s record and make up their own minds.
“Nobody has pushed this nomination. Everybody was told by Mitch McConnell to analyze the matter and make your own decision on what you think is the right thing to do,” Sessions said.
Sessions said there was also a debate over how much Republicans wanted to defer to President Obama. “There is a question of deference,” Sessions said. “How much deference should you give to a president’s nomination? Years ago Republicans gave very high [amounts] of deference, Democrats did not. And as of two years ago, when [Justice Samuel] Alito and [Chief Justice John] Roberts came along, they opposed two fabulously qualified judges and even filibustered Judge Alito -- and President Obama participated in that.”
“I think that’s too low a standard, when you have people of that quality who are committed to judicial restraint, who are not out to promote political agendas and I think they [Democrats] should have given deference to them,” said Sessions.
Sessions said that many Republicans wanted to vote for Sotomayor, but were prevented from doing so because of philosophical differences.
“I think many people wanted to vote for Judge Sotomayor, she’s a very nice and gracious lady and our first Hispanic [nominee] and so they were desirous to vote [yes],” said Sessions. “Senator McConnell, when he was here as a staffer, used to believe that deference should be very high. [However], the Constitution doesn’t require any such thing, it requires each senator to vote [based] on what they think is right.
“All things being equal, you’d like to support the president’s nominee,” Sessions said. “But if you think that the nominee has a philosophy of judging that is not good for the American legal system, you shouldn’t vote for them.”
Contact: Matt Cover
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: August 7, 2009
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