[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 10, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6394-S6395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SOTOMAYOR NOMINATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Senator Leahy's decision to rush Judge 
Sotomayor's confirmation hearing is, indeed, puzzling. It risks 
resulting in a less-informed hearing, and it breaks with years of 
tradition in which bipartisan agreements were reached and honored over 
the scheduling of hearings for Supreme Court nominees. It damages the 
cordiality and good will the Senate relies on to do its business. These 
kinds of partisan maneuvers have always come with consequences. This 
time is no different.

[[Page S6395]]

  The explanations that some of our friends offered yesterday to 
justify a rushed hearing were almost as remarkable as the decision 
itself and the partisan way in which it was handled. Some said 
Republicans proposed unreasonable hearing dates. Yet no one can cite 
the time and place when any of these supposed requests were made.
  But blaming Republicans for statements they never made was not as 
ludicrous as the claim that Judge Sotomayor's long judicial record is 
somehow reason to rush the review process. Not only is this 
counterintuitive--why should it take less time to read more cases?--it 
also flies in the face of every statement our Democratic friends made 
on the topic after the nomination of the last two Supreme Court 
nominees.
  Time and time again, they told us the Senate was not a rubberstamp 
and that hearings for Judge Alito and Judge Roberts could not be 
rushed. As Senator Leahy put it at the time:

       We want to do it right. We don't want to do it fast.

  Republicans respected these requests because we recognized the 
importance of a thorough review. On the Alito nomination, for instance, 
Senators had 70 days to prepare for a hearing on a nominee who, as 
Senator Leahy noted at the time, had handled some 3,500 cases on the 
Federal bench. Judge Sotomayor has handled over 3,600 cases, so it 
stands to reason we would have as much time to review her record as we 
did Judge Alito's. But for some reason, the old standard has been 
thrown out as new reasons have emerged for rushing the process on this 
nominee.
  As Senator Sessions informed us yesterday, the questionnaire Judge 
Sotomayor filled out suffers from significant omissions. For example, 
she failed to produce numerous opinions from cases in which she was 
involved as a district attorney.
  In addition, she failed to produce a memorandum from her time with 
the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund that opposed the application of the 
death penalty. When this omission was brought to the judge's attention, 
I understand the White House then provided this memorandum, saying it 
was an oversight. But in the rush to complete the questionnaire in 
order to garner a talking point, you are prone to these sorts of 
mistakes. This, of course, counsels the Senate to have a thorough, 
deliberative process, not a rush to judgment in order to meet an 
arbitrary deadline.
  When it came to Republican nominees such as Judge Roberts and Judge 
Alito, our Democratic friends wanted to review the record, and 
Republicans worked in a bipartisan fashion to come to a consensus on a 
fair process that respected the minority's rights. Yet when it comes to 
a Democratic nominee, our friends want to deny Republicans the same 
rights. They want the shortest confirmation timeline in recent memory 
for someone with the longest judicial record in recent memory. Let me 
say that again.
  They want the shortest confirmation timeline in recent memory for 
someone with the longest judicial record in recent memory.
  This violates basic standards of fairness, and it prevents Senators 
from carrying out one of their most solemn duties--a thorough review of 
the President's nominee to a lifetime position on the highest Court in 
the land. The decision to short circuit that process is regrettable and 
completely unnecessary.
  I yield the floor.

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