You can watch the Sotomayor hearing on C-SPAN. So far this morning Chairman Leahy used his time to anticipate Republican lines of attack and to allow Sotomayor to explain and contextualize a couple of controversial comments that she has made over the years. Ranking Member Sessions made a variety of thrusts, mainly focused on the Ricci (New Haven firefighters) case that the Supreme Court recently overturned.
It seemed to me that Sessions was tentative and ineffective. He wanted to suggest that Sotomayor let her prejudice against white people affect her judgment in the Ricci case, but he was unwilling to press the point. I don’t think he scored many points by criticizing a per curiam decision for being per curiam. Most people don’t know what that dispute is about and won’t care.
My sense is that the Republicans are going to keep going back to the Ricci case and controversial comments, and that the tactic will have little cumulative effect, and will only serve to irritate and alienate the Latino community and bore everyone else.
The order of questioning is by seniority (switching back and forth between parties). You can anticipate the questions by looking at the Senate Judiciary Committee roster.
