Projo Politics Blog

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse defended President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee Monday by criticizing what he called "the Roberts right-wing flank'' of the high court for its decisions on abortion, gun rights and other issues.

"The right wing justices of the court,'' including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., "have a striking record of ignoring precedent, overturning congressional statutes, limiting constitutional protections, and discovering new constitutional rights,'' Rhode Island Democrat Whitehouse said as the Senate Judiciary opened hearings on the nomination of federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Using sarcasm, extensive quotations from U.S. history and some of the strongest partisan attacks of the first session of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, Whitehouse sought to expose what he called "the pretence that Republican nominees embody modesty and restraint, or that Democratic nominees must be activists.''

Whitehouse also joined fellow Democrats in rejecting a well-known Roberts comparison of the judge's role to that of the umpire in baseball.

Citing an article in The New Yorker magazine, Whitehouse depicted Roberts as backing "the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff."

Whitehouse concluded: "Some umpire.''

The senator then listed several rulings of the Roberts court, including what he described as "the first limitation on Roe v. Wade that outright disregards the woman's health and safety.'' That was a reference to the Supreme Court decision that upheld a law banning the late-term abortion procedure known to its opponents as "partial birth abortion.''

"Some balls and strikes,'' Whitehouse observed.

Whitehouse praised Sotomayor as well, and he defended Mr. Obama's use of the criterion of "empathy'' in his selection of Sotomayor.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., responded to Whitehouse's opening statement by telling Sotomayor that he had thought "this was your confirmation hearing'' rather than a hearing on Roberts.

Get the latest from the Associated Press on the Sotomayor confirmation hearings

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SOTOMAYOR_SENATE?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-07-13-12-26-19

 Tags  confirmation hearings Sotomayor Supreme Court Whitehouse

Comments

R.Tedeschi said:

Lost my suppor Mr. Senator. These are hearings not anything about Mr.Roberts. Apparently Power has gone to your head. Will never support you, again, as I have in the past. Shame on you.

Bob T.

Link | July 13, 2009 5:03 PM
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William Fooks said:

Does he have a thought of his own? A lock stepper he should not be. How can a candidate for this position lie, and then be consideres a good judge? Then we have our Senator support this kind of action. I guess he supports this activity. Now look who we put in this position, with our votes. Mr Whitehouse. Shame on us.

Link | July 14, 2009 6:42 AM
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