Sotomayor Hearing Schedule: What Time Are Supreme Court Hearings?

The Huffington Post  I  First Posted: 07-13-09 09:21 AM   |   Updated: 07-13-09 10:28 AM

The Senate Judiciary Committee has released a schedule for the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, which start Monday morning.

Sotomayor To Answer Judiciary Panel's Questions

by Nina Totenberg  I  Morning Edition, July 14, 2009

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is back before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday. She listened to hours of comments at her confirmation hearing Monday before getting a chance to give her own opening statement. Senators of both parties praised her personal accomplishments.

Matt Lauer and David Gregory discussing the Sotomayor Hearing

July 13: TODAY'S Matt Lauer talks to David Gregory, moderator or NBC'S "Meet The Press," about the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

She's Come Redone:Senators at today's hearing were determined to cast Sotomayor as over-the-top. Why didn't she fight back harder?

By Dahlia Lithwick Posted on SLATE Monday, July 13, 2009, at 7:00 PM ET

To hear the senators talking, their overwhelming impression of Sonia Sotomayor on this first day of her confirmation hearings is that she is Just. Too. Much.
Sotomayor herself feeds that impression off the bat by confessing to the committee that she has brought along too much family—or what she describes as "familylike" people. If she were to introduce the whole pack of them by name, she says, "we'd be here all morning." Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., then tries to turn the judge's Too Muchness into an asset by trussing up Sotomayor in superlatives. "She has more federal judicial experience than any nominee to the Supreme Court in 100 years." "She is the first nominee in well over a century to be nominated to three different federal judgeships by three different presidents." We hear over and over that to be the first requires being "the best." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., promises that Sotomayor will go on to be "one of the finest justices in American history."

Sotomayor Vows ‘Fidelity to the Law’ as Hearings Start

By PETER BAKER and NEIL A. LEWIS  I  NYT  I  Published: July 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — Judge Sonia Sotomayor opened her case for confirmation to the Supreme Court on Monday by assuring senators that she believes a judge’s job “is not to make law” but “to apply the law,” as the two parties used her nomination to debate the role of the judiciary.Responding for the first time to weeks of Republican criticism, Judge Sotomayor rejected the notion that personal biases determine her rulings and said her 17 years on the bench showed that she “applied the law to the facts at hand.” Her empathy helps her grasp a case, not twist it to suit an agenda, she said.

View complete articles, recordings and videos after the jump.

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Blog post from our colleagues at the the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Click here to see the RACblog.

The first day of hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court has come to an end.  All 19 members of the Judiciary Committee gave their opening statements and Judge Sotomayor offered her testimony. 

The Senator's speeches reflected the seriousness with which they take their roles in the judicial nominations process.  Senator Feingold articulated this sentiment when he said,

The nine men and women who sit on the court have enormous responsibilities, and those of us tasked with voting on the confirmation of a nominee have a significant responsibility as well. I consider this one of the most consequential things I must do as a United States Senator.

The Senators' statements varied in tone and approach, but there were many themes that recurred throughout the hearing.  The most prominent theme was the consideration of the unspoken question, "What makes a good Supreme Court Justice?"

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LiveBlog of Judge Sotomayor’s Confirmation Hearings

Monday, July 13th, 2009 9:36 am | Kristina Moore

Beginning at 10 a.m. EDT, Supreme Court of the United States Blog will provide as-it-happens coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Other Useful LiveBlogs After the Jump

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In the first day of hearings on the appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by the retirement of Justice David Souter, members and the nominee presented opening statements. Members focused on Judge Sotomayer's experience as a trial lawyer and federal judge, as well as her judicial temperament and philosophy. They also outlined several areas that would be a focus of questioning including her statements about race and ethnicity. In her testimony, Judge Sotomayor focused on her career and touched briefly on several cases she had heard as a judge.

Clips of the rest of the hearing after the jump.

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 WASHINGTON (Thursday, July 9, 2009) 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) Thursday announced the witness list for the confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin on July 13 at 10:00 a.m.  The lists of witnesses invited by the Majority and Minority of the Judiciary Committee follow.  A panel of witnesses from the American Bar Association will also testify.  For more information about the Supreme Court, the Sotomayor nomination, and hearing details, visit the Senate Judiciary Committee website.

American Bar Association Witnesses

Kim Askew, Chair of Standing Committee
Mary Boies, Primary Reviewer

Majority Witnesses

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, City of New York
Chuck Canterbury, National President, Fraternal Order of Police
David Cone, former Major League Baseball pitcher
JoAnne A. Epps, Dean, Temple University Beasley School of Law, on behalf of the National Association of Women Lawyers
Louis Freeh, former Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation

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Arar v. Ashcroft May Put Sotomayor on the Record on Executive Power, Rendition

Observers of Judge Sotomayor’s nomination have asserted that—barring some unexpected revelation—her eventual confirmation is not seriously in doubt.  Even so, a currently undecided national security case has the potential to rival Ricci for the spotlight.  If Sotomayor decides that case prior to her confirmation hearings, then no matter how she rules, it will certainly be the subject of significant discussion at the hearings.

Richard Lacayo writes that Sotomayor’s current court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, “hears plenty of cases involving business and securities law but not many that touch on the hot-button issues that make for good attack ads.  Abortion, the death penalty, gay rights, executive power—those haven’t come up much, if at all, on Sotomayor’s docket.”  But the case of Maher Arar, laden with striking facts and political implications, looms as a signal exception.  Sotomayor heard the case on December 9, 2008, when it was argued for the Second Circuit, sitting en banc.

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Obama’s Pick on Religious Liberty

President Obama, this morning, nominated Judge Sonya Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court. An early survey of her opinions on religious liberty issues is very encouraging:

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Judge Sotomayor’s Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases

Judge Sonia Sotomayor is an obviously serious candidate to serve on the Supreme Court.  We have been struck by how the amount of commentary about Judge Sotomayor has ignored the most accessible and valuable source of information:  her opinions as an appellate judge.  Last year, I directed a project in which a team of Akin Gump summer associates extensively reviewed Judge Sotomayor’s opinions.  Amy Howe subsequently revised and expanded their work, with contributions by me.

Here, we make our first effort at summarizing what we regard as Judge Sotomayor’s principal opinions in civil cases.  Our only goal is to identify and summarize the opinions, not evaluate them.

A summary of additional civil cases, as well as Judge Sotomayor’s leading criminal law opinions will follow.

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