[Vision2020] Sonia Sotomayor Wins Confirmation By 68 to 31 Vote

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of CNN at:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/06/sonia.sotomayor/index.html

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Senate confirms Sotomayer for Supreme Court
Story Highlights
NEW: Sonia Sotomayor wins confirmation by 68 to 31 vote

She will be the 111th justice, the third woman and first Hispanic on high
court

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme
Court nomination, 68 to 31, making her the first Hispanic on the high
court.

Sotomayor's confirmation also makes the 55-year-old federal appeals court
judge the 111th person to sit on the Supreme Court, and the third woman
justice.

The confirmation was read out by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota.

Senators spent the final morning of debate rehashing the main arguments
for and against Sotomayor.

Democrats continued to praise Sotomayor as a fair and impartial jurist
with an extraordinary life story. Many Republicans continued to portray
her as a judicial activist intent on reinterpreting the law to conform
with her own liberal political beliefs.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
helped open the final day of debate by praising Sotomayor's lengthy
judicial record. He also took a swipe at the majority of Senate
Republicans likely to oppose her.

Sotomayor "is a judge of unimpeachable character and integrity," Leahy
said. "These critics have ... chosen to ignore her extensive record of
judicial modesty and restraint, a record made over 17 years on the federal
bench. Instead they focused on and mischaracterized her rulings in just a
handful of her more than 3,600 cases."

Conservative opponents conceded that the likelihood of Sotomayor's
confirmation and expressed hope that she would bring a "restrained
approach" to the high court.

"I hope that on the Supreme Court, Judge Sotomayor will take an objective,
modest and restrained approach to interpreting and applying written law,"
said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

"I hope that she actively defends her impartiality against subjective
influences such as personal sympathies and prejudices. ... And I hope she
proves me wrong in my negative vote against her. Because the record has
not convinced me that she holds those views today, I cannot support her
appointment."

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicated a majority of Americans
believe the chamber should confirm Sotomayor.

Fifty-one percent of those questioned in the poll, conducted Friday
through Monday, said the Senate should confirm Sotomayor, with 36 percent
opposed.

The poll suggests the rise in support came solely from women.

"Among men, there has been virtually no change in attitudes toward
Sotomayor. Among women, however, support for Sotomayor's nomination
appears on the rise -- from 47 percent in June to 55 percent now," said
CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The poll also indicated a wide partisan divide over Sotomayor, with nearly
three out of four Democrats saying that she should be confirmed, but only
a quarter of Republicans agreeing.

The telephone poll of 1,136 Americans has a sampling error of plus or
minus 4.5 percentage points. The sampling error is larger for the
questions broken down between gender and political party.

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor

http://tinyurl.com/JusticeSotomayor

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Seeya at farmers' Market, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown