Hispanic interest groups are headed to the Senate in support of Sonia Sotomayor's nomination, and not for the first time. In 1998, after Sotomayor's nomination to the appellate court level had languished in the Senate for more than a year, a coalition of legal and community groups began to complain that Hispanic judicial nominees were being held up for much longer than non-Hispanics.
Lauren Bell, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., who was a visiting fellow on the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, said that empirically it was true that Hispanic nominations took longer to get through the Republican-controlled Senate. "The Republicans said it wasn't about them being Hispanic, it was about them being activists," Bell said.
Nonetheless, the Hispanic National Bar Association and other groups undertook a major lobbying effort. Ramona Romero, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association, was head of the organization's District of Columbia affiliate at the time. "A group of the Hispanic leaders who are interested in a fair, diverse and independent judiciary took notice of the fact that the Senate was not performing its duty to advise and consent in a fair and appropriate way, and we did take notice and we did act on it," she said.
Their personal appeals and visits to senators attracted the attention of New York Republican Alfonse D'Amato -- who was up for reelection that year. In an interview this week, D'Amato said he appealed to Senate leaders to bring Sotomayor and other Hispanic nominees to a vote. "I really did push for it because she had strong support from the legal community as well as the Hispanic community," D'Amato said.
The Judicial Confirmation Network has launched three new online ads and a Web site targeting three of President Obama's reported Supreme Court short-listers: appellate judges Diane Wood and Sonia Sotomayor and Solicitor General Elena Kagan.
The videos -- one for each potential nominee -- offer a glimpse into what conservatives could use as ammo if one of these three is the president's first high court pick. The Web site www.obamasfrontrunners.com, which launched today, asks visitors to vote for "which frontrunner is the worst liberal judicial activist," a common theme in criticism from the right.
The ads are not actually running on TV or radio; they are primarily serving to drive traffic to the organization's Web site, according to a group spokesperson.
Updated at 9:28 a.m. on May 15.
President Obama met with Senate leaders on Wednesday to discuss the Supreme Court vacancy, but that wasn't the only place the administration was seeking counsel. At least eight progressive groups, including the AFL-CIO, People for the American Way and the National Council of La Raza, also met with administration officials to discuss what they're looking for in a nominee. The White House would not confirm which groups were in attendance, but NationalJournal.com has learned that the list included:
• AFL-CIO
• Alliance for Justice
• Asian American Justice Center
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• National Council of La Raza
• National Partnership of Women and Families
• National Women's Law Center
• People for the American Way
According to a White House official, the administration plans to "meet with senators on both sides of the aisle and a diverse array of organizations not limited to the left or the right." But the staffer declined to comment on any specific plans to hold a similar meeting with right-leaning groups.
A spokesperson for CRC Public Relations, a firm representing groups such as Americans United for Life and the Judicial Confirmation Network, said she was unaware of any outreach so far from the administration. And Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society, said that his organization has not been contacted by the White House and that he was unaware Wednesday's meeting had taken place.
