Historic Supreme Court Nominee

July 17, 2009 GOP Won’t Filibuster Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation Vote
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor appears headed to a speedy confirmation after her last day of questioning on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions, said he won’t try to filibuster a vote on Sotomayor’s nomination.

July 15, 2009 Review of Sotomayor’s Record Belies GOP Charges of Biased Judicial Practice
An exhaustive review of all 1,994 constitutional cases decided by the Second Circuit during the decade of Judge Sotomayor’s service found that Sotomayor is solidly in the mainstream of her colleagues. The Brennan Center for Justice report found Sotomayor voted with the majority of the court in 98.2 percent of constitutional cases.

July 15, 2009 Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor Answers GOP Critics on Prior Remarks
The confirmation hearings for President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor continue on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, Democratic senators praised Sotomayor’s seventeen years on the federal bench, while Republicans repeatedly grilled her about statements she has made during a series of speeches over the years. We play excerpts of the hearings.

July 14, 2009 Analysis of Hearings’ Opening Day With Professor, Ex-Sotomayor Law Clerk Jenny Rivera and Democracy Now!’s Juan Gonzalez
As Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s historic confirmation hearings continue into their second day, we speak to CUNY Law school Professor Jenny Rivera, founding director of the Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality and a former law clerk under Sotomayor.

July 14, 2009 Confirmation Hearings Open for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 1st Latina Nominated to Supreme Court
The historic confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor have begun. On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee debated Sotomayor’s qualifications for a permanent seat on the nation’s highest court. Democrats praised her extensive judicial experience and the story of her personal progression.

July 14, 2009 Story of Wrongfully-Convicted Prisoner Jailed by Sotomayor Excluded from Confirmation Hearings
We speak to Jeffrey Deskovic, a wrongfully-convicted prisoner who spent 16 years in prison until DNA evidence proved his innocence. In 1997—nine years before his eventual release—he appealed his conviction to Judge Sonia Sotomayor and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

May 27, 2009 Obama Nominee Sonia Sotomayor Poised to Become First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
President Obama has nominated federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, putting her in line to become the country’s first Hispanic justice. The fifty-four-year-old Sotomayor is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who raised her in a public housing project in the Bronx. We host a roundtable with Marjorie Cohn of the National Lawyers Guild; attorney and SCOTUS Blog founder Tom Goldstein; Cesar Perales, general counsel of Latino Justice; and Juan Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua, an independent political analyst who knows Sotomayor personally. [includes rush transcript]