4:20 p.m. – Sen. Cardin closes the panel and announces a five-minute break. Liveblogging will continue in a new post when the next panel begins. The next panel will include Americans United for Life President & CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest.
4:06 p.m. -Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) takes the microphone. He notes Sotomayor’s past statement that there is “no neutrality” in the law and says he is more concerned about that in light of some of the panelists’ testimony: “If there’s no neutrality, I guess all that leaves is bias.”
4:02 p.m. – Linda Chavez says in answer to a question from Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), regarding the Ricci case, that she thinks Judge Sotomayor has indicated a preference to eliminate testing. “She has fought to get rid of civil-service testing … and has recognized civil-service tests as inherently unequal.”
3:55 p.m. – Hatch asks New Haven firefighter Ricci if his understanding of how the city worked hard to design a fair test made him believe he would be judged on his merits.
Ricci: “Just by taking the test, we knew that the test was job-related” and measured the skills needed to be competent firefighters.
3:51 p.m. – After a round of uneventful questioning by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) takes the microphone. He asks Wade Henderson if he agrees that there was no precedent for Sotomayor to follow in the Ricci case. Henderson does agree.
3:40 p.m. – Graham tells Ricci that as a country, we’re trying to find some balance. “But,” he adds, “please don’t lose sight of the fact, not so very long ago, the test was rigged a different way.”
The senator then tells firefighter Vargas — also apparently referring to past racial prejudice in America — that not too long ago, his last name would have been “it.” (Huh?)
3:36 p.m. – Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on how he believes identity politics take place on both sides of the party divide: “I know that Republicans sit down and say … let’s let the whole country know we’re not just a party of short white guys.”
3:28 p.m. – Chavez: “I think it’s important to rejudge Sotomayor’s entire ['Latina Judge's Voice'] speech,” not just the “wise Latina woman” comment. She observes that the nominee spoke approvingly in the speech of studies that gave statistics on gender differences in judging. “Inherent in her analysis is the notion that there ought to be proportional representation on judicial panels” for ethnicity. Chavez says this is very close to arguing for quotas. (For more on the nominee’s “Latina Judge’s Voice” speech, including a link to its original text, see AUL’s Sotomayor411.com.)
3:24 p.m. – Sessions asks firefighter Vargas if those who failed the exam would have mastered it if they had studied as hard as he did. “Absolutely,” Vargas says.”
3:18 p.m. – Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) begins to question the panel.
3:08 p.m. – Chavez observes that Sotomayor, in her senior thesis at Princeton, refused to refer to the U.S. Congress by its name, calling it instead “the North American Congress.”
3:05 p.m. – Linda Chavez begins her testimony. “My message today is straightforward: Mr. Chairman, do not vote to confirm this nominee. … It is clear from her record that she has drunk deep from the well of identity politics.”
3:01 p.m. – Kirsanow says the standard endorsed by Sotomayor in the Ricci case would have resulted in “de facto quotas.” (His words echo the Supreme Court’s language in its decision overturning the nominee’s ruling.)
2:59 p.m. – Peter Kirsanow of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights begins his testimony. Says he is here in his personal capacity. Says his commission revealed three significant problems with Sotomayor’s handling of the case, starting with the summary dismissal.
2:54 p.m. – Benjamin Vargas begins his testimony. Notes that since his case was summarily dismissed by the district court and the Second Circuit panel, this is his first chance to give his story. He observes that he is Hispanic and proud of the heritage he and Sotomayor share.
He says he sought to better his life for his three young sons. “My wife … took time off from work to see me and our children through this [exam] process.” Spent months studying for the exam every day. Put photographs of his boys in front of him to inspire himself to keep studying.
“I was shocked when I was not rewarded for this hard work and sacrifice, but was actually penalized for it. … I am proud of the decision I made and proud of the principle that our group vindicated together.”
He notes that as a firefighter, unlike the judicial system, there is no room for error or delay. “I am not a lawyer, but I quickly learned about the law as it applied to this case. … I expected Lady Justice with the blindfolds on. … Instead, we were devastated to see a one-paragraph unpublished order summarily dismissing our case. … I expected the judges who heard my case along the way to make the right decision.” Says it was Justice Alito who best captured the firefighters’ own feelings.
2:53 p.m. – Ricci: “The more attention our case got, the more some people tried to distort it.” It bothered him that some saw the case as representing a testing process in which minorities were excluded from promotions. In fact, minorities were hurt by the lower-court decision as well, he says. “When we finally won our case and saw the messages we received from every corner of the country, we understood that we had done something very important together.”
2:51 p.m. – Ricci says the summary order, mentioning his dyslexia, made it seem as though the case was about him and his disability. “It had nothing to do with that. … The lower court’s belief that citizens should be reduced to racial statistics is flawed.”
2:50 p.m. – Ricci, being dyslexic, is following his testimony with his finger as he reads. Watching him really brings home what he overcame to pass the New Haven firefighters exam. “I studied harder than I ever had before. … I was a virtual absentee father and husband for months because of it.”
2:48 p.m.- Frank Ricci begins his testimony.
2:46 p.m. – Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is giving his testimony. In the meantime, AUL has just posted the testimony that our President & CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest is set to deliver when she appears on the next witness panel.
2:36 p.m. – Former New York City DA Robert Morgenthau, who was the nominee’s boss during her days as a prosecutor, is making his statement.
2:32 p.m. – Bloomberg keeps calling the nominee “Judge Sontamayor.”
2:29 p.m. – Bloomberg has arrived, so the rest of the Democrats’ panel is sworn in. Sen. Cardin introduces Mayor Bloomberg.
2:22 p.m. – Sessions asks McDaniel if he’s aware the Second Circuit panel decided Ricci as a summary order?
McDaniel says he is aware. “I know that the body of judges chose to review the matter and they voted not to meet en banc.”
Session notes that Judge Sotomayor was the key vote in deciding not to rehear the Ricci case. So, he says, it’s inaccurate to say she was just following authority, because it was her vote that decided the authority would not be reevaluated.
Sessions raises the issue of the Heller case and says that McDaniel joined a brief to the Supreme Court arguing the Second Amendment was a fundamental right. He points out that Heller was just a 5-4 opinion, with some justices arguing the Second Amendment did not apply to individual citizens. “Are you aware of the Maloney case in which Judge Sotomayor … justified her conclusion that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states? … Are you aware that one vote on the Supreme Court can make a difference” on whether the right to bear arms may be retained?
McDaniel says despite his views on the Second Amendment, he is nonetheless not concerned. He says he does not believe the right to keep and bear arms is at risk.
Sessions: “Thank you — and I think it is.”
2:13 p.m. – The hearing resumes and begins with the Democrats’ panel of witnesses. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is sworn in. (NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg was supposed to go first, but he has not returned from break.) Daniel is explaining why he supported Sotomayor’s Ricci decision.
2:07 p.m. – A five-minute break is called. Liveblogging will resume afterward. The Democrats’ panel of witnesses is up next. Following will be the witnesses called by the GOP, including Americans United for Life President & CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest.
2:00 p.m. – Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) asks if the ABA looked at the Ricci case. One of the ABA reps says the Second Circuit panel heard full briefing and oral argument, and then decided to adopt in effect the district court’s ruling because they affirmed the ruling.
Sessions says that’s basically true, but what he’s asking about is the decision to decide it as a summary matter.
One of the ABA reps says they did not talk to Sotomayor about that and did not believe it was within the criteria they use to evaluate judges.
1:53 p.m. – One of the ABA reps says they met with Sotomayor for three hours and discussed “every” criticism that had been made of her. She talks about how they went to great length to investigate a particular criticism. Does not give details of what the criticism was, but it’s clear that the results of the investigation did not affect the ABA’s glowing evaluation of the nominee.
1:50 p.m. – Sen. Whitehouse is reading aloud various laudatory statements about the nominee from the ABA report.
1:42 p.m. – Sen. Whitehouse (D-R.I.) takes the microphone and announces the first witnesses, representatives from the American Bar Association.
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