http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/ en Copyright 2010 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification With Sonia Sotomayor's swearing-in as the 111th justice of the Supreme Court, the Ninth Justice blog is going dark, but its resources, news updates and analysis will live on in the archives. Visit some of the highlights below. Analysis from Stuart Taylor Jr. Video: Taylor Looks Back On Hearings Before & After: David Souter And Sonia Sotomayor Q&A: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Q&A: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Q&A: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska Q&A: Sen. Jeffrey Sessions, R-Ala. Q&A: Former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo. Reporting From The Hearings Making The Grade: Experts Evaluate Hearing Performances Sotomayor's Princeton Awakening Book Excerpt: Advice http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/editors-note.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/editors-note.php Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT (Credit: Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images) Judge Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in with the Judicial Oath in the East Conference room of the Supreme Court this morning by Chief Justice John Roberts as her mother Celina holds the Bible and her brother Juan Luis looks on. http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sotomayor-sworn-in-as-first-hi.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sotomayor-sworn-in-as-first-hi.php Update Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:38:44 GMT President Obama said he was "very happy" with the 68-31 vote by which Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed, with nine Republicans breaking to join a unanimous Democrat conference -- minus the ailing Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. -- to support the nominee. But according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Wednesday, only 27 percent of Republicans said the Senate should confirm Sotomayor while 58 percent opposed the nomination. And just 22.5 percent of Senate Republicans eventually voted to confirm her. How bipartisan was the vote? A closer look at which senators voted yes or no reveals that most who are seeking re-election or http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/parsing-the-gops-sotomayor-vot.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/parsing-the-gops-sotomayor-vot.php Analysis Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:16:00 GMT Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has used debate over Sonia Sotomayor to argue that Democratic opposition to Bush administration judicial nominees reduced the deference GOP senators are now obliged to give a president's judicial picks, freeing them to oppose nominees on philosophical grounds. Asked after Sotomayor's confirmation Thursday if he felt his argument caught on with GOP colleagues, who voted 31-9 against Sotomayor's confirmation, McConnell said he was pleased with the way his caucus approached the vote. "This was an issue upon which every senator tries establishing their own criteria for judging a nominee. And it's kind of shifted http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/mcconnell-proud.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/mcconnell-proud.php Update Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:00:00 GMT In the latest edition of Hotline TV, John Mercurio and Steve Shepard give their take on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation and talk about who else came out on top. http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/hotline-tv-sotomayor-takes-a-s.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/hotline-tv-sotomayor-takes-a-s.php Analysis Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:47:11 GMT • The Legal Times reports that Sonia Sotomayor was in New York "with more than a hundred colleagues and friends at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit when the Senate roll call put her over the top for confirmation as the next justice on the Supreme Court." • USA Today rounds up jubilant reaction from Hispanics, including this moment: "At the moment of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation as the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, Carmen Garcia cried, hard." • "Now comes the hard part," the New York Times reports in an analysis. "The volume and difficulty of http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/top-nomination-news-5.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/top-nomination-news-5.php Recommended Reading Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:45:00 GMT Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., during the Sotomayor hearings. (Credit: Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images) Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., was simply in the right spot at the right time. The most junior member of the Senate presided over the historic roll call vote of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation Thursday because it was part of his regular rotation, which happens to be on Thursdays, said a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "It was an honor," Franken said soon after the vote. "It was definitely an honor." Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that "he did a great job." This was http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/franken-lucks-out.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/franken-lucks-out.php Profile Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:30:00 GMT (Credit:Alex Wong/Getty Images) President Obama called Sonia Sotomayor's rise to the Supreme Court an "American journey" that shows the country is "breaking yet another barrier." He spoke to the media from the Diplomatic Reception Room following the confirmation vote, which he described as affirmation that Sotomayor has what it takes to serve as justice. Asked by a reporter whether he's happy with 68 "yea" votes, Obama answered: "I'm very happy." His complete remarks are after the jump. http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/obama-us-is.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/obama-us-is.php Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:35:00 GMT Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., reacts passionately to a question about President Obama's next Supreme Court nominee as Judiciary member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., looks on. (Credit: Amy Harder) The Senate had barely finished its roll call vote on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation before reporters started asking about President Obama's next nominee to the Supreme Court. When Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was asked during a press conference whether he would advise Obama to nominate anyone he wants since Republicans have signaled they will vote against anyone he picks, the Vermont Democrat slammed his fists down on the podium in http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/leahy-a-fistful-reaction-to-ne.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/leahy-a-fistful-reaction-to-ne.php Update Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:17:25 GMT Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., addresses a crowd assembled outside the Capitol Building Wednesday afternoon to rally for Sotomayor's confirmation. (Credit: Amy Harder) Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island was one of the few Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee whom liberal legal scholars said embraced a more progressive judicial philosophy during Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings (subscription). NationalJournal.com's Amy Harder spoke with Whitehouse this morning about the larger battle between conservatives and liberals over the judiciary. Edited excerpts follow. NJ: Why do you think it is important to embrace a philosophy that counters what the Republicans have put forth? Whitehouse: http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sen-whitehouse-scotus-confirma.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sen-whitehouse-scotus-confirma.php Q&A Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:00:46 GMT (Credit: Julie Abramson) Before David Souter's confirmation hearings in the summer of 1990, he so worried conservatives that White House Chief of Staff John Sununu had to mount a last-minute campaign assuring them that the New Hampshire judge would be a reliable vote for the right. During his testimony, Souter frustrated Republican Sen. Charles Grassley by telling him that "courts must accept their own responsibility for making a just society." Sonia Sotomayor hasn't rattled liberals in quite the same way, but she, like Souter, didn't spend much time at the confirmation hearings defending her nominating party's judicial philosophy. Is there http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/before-after-david-souter-and.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/before-after-david-souter-and.php Analysis Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:45:00 GMT Updated at 4:03 p.m. on Aug. 6. The Senate voted 68-31 to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court this afternoon, clearing the way for her to become the nation's first Hispanic justice. Nine Republicans joined the entire Democratic caucus -- save ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts -- in voting yes. Sotomayor will be sworn in on Saturday. The newest member of the Senate, Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota, presided. Leading up to the largely anticlimactic vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., took to the floor http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sotomayor-confirmed-6831.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sotomayor-confirmed-6831.php Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:21:14 GMT In a statement announcing his support for Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, emphasized that the Second Amendment is important to his constituents, but that he is "convinced she will not be an activist justice." He added, "I believe she will continue her practice of upholding the law and protecting our constitutional rights without bringing personal bias to her decisions." Begich had been targeted by conservative interest groups as a potentially vulnerable red state Democrat, and fellow Alaskan Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said he has likely been facing the same pressure from his constituents as she has on the issue. http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/begich-cites-importance-of-sec.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/begich-cites-importance-of-sec.php Update Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:23:41 GMT With Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio announcing this afternoon that he will vote in favor of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation, all Republican votes are accounted for: Nine will vote yes, and 31 will vote no. The White House may tout this as a "bipartisan" victory, but conservative interest groups also see it as a victory for them. Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, said the goal was to break 30 no votes, and that's just what happened Wednesday night when Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced her intent to oppose Sotomayor -- the last Republican to do so. http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/all-gop-votes-accounted-for.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/all-gop-votes-accounted-for.php Update Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:59:00 GMT "American law does not permit the use of foreign law or international law to interpret the Constitution," Judge Sonia Sotomayor declared at one point in her confirmation testimony last month. "Foreign law cannot be used as a holding or precedent or to bind or to influence the outcome of a legal conclusion interpreting the Constitution," she asserted at another point. "I will not use foreign law to interpret the Constitution," she said at a third point. But there was much less than meets to eye to Sotomayor's apparently categorical assertions. They seemed to say that she would never engage http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sotomayor-foreign-law.php http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/sotomayor-foreign-law.php Stuart Taylor Jr.: Analysis Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:30:00 GMT