Sotomayor answers GOP critics

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, deflecting persistent Republican skepticism that she can be impartial, insisted at her confirmation hearing yesterday that in 17 years as a judge she had never let her life experiences or opinions influence her decisions.

Sotomayor, 55, described as a regrettable "rhetorical flourish" her now-famous remark - seized on by her GOP critics on the Senate Judiciary Committee - that she would hope a "wise Latina" would make better decisions because of her life experiences than a white male.

"I want . . . to give everyone assurances, I want to state up front, unequivocally and without doubt, I do not believe that any ethnic, racial, or gender group has an advantage in sound judging," the former district judge who now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York told senators on the second day of the hearing.

She kept her composure and she defended her reasoning in dismissing the discrimination claim of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. - a decision reversed by the Supreme Court - saying she and her appellate-court colleagues were just following precedent.

But like most nominees, she sidestepped giving her opinions on flash-point issues such as abortion and gun rights brought up by questioners, pledging only to be guided by precedent.

"I don't prejudge," she said.

No Senate Republicans have said whether they will support Sotomayor's nomination, and yesterday, some GOP committee members said her testimony - that her life experiences play no role in her judging - was inconsistent with past public remarks.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.). "Who are we getting here?"

A key Democratic supporter, Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D., Vt.), told reporters he was "convinced" she would be confirmed not just with Democratic votes but also Republican.

Sotomayor said her "wise Latina" remark in a 2001 speech was an attempt to play off observations by former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and others that, all other things being equal, a wise old man should reach the same decision as a wise old woman.

"I knew that Justice O'Connor couldn't have meant that if judges reached different conclusions - legal conclusions - that one of them wasn't wise," she said.

At the same time, she acknowledged, her own comment "was bad, because it left an impression that I believed that life experiences commanded a result in a case."

She said she was trying "to inspire young Hispanics, Latino students and lawyers to believe that their life experiences added value to the process."

She said she disagreed with President Obama's view that empathy was a necessary ingredient in judging.

"No, sir," Sotomayor responded to a question from Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.). "I wouldn't approach the issue of judging in the way the president does."

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the panel's ranking Republican, was not satisfied.

Reading a series of remarks Sotomayor has made over the years about how life experiences affect the outlook of a judge, Sessions questioned whether she could be fair.

"I think it's consistent in the comments I've quoted to you and your previous statements that you do believe that your background will . . . affect the result in cases, and that's troubling me," Sessions said.

Sotomayor said: "My record shows that at no point or time have I ever permitted my personal views or sympathies to influence an outcome of a case. In every case where I have identified a sympathy, I have articulated it and explained to the litigant why the law requires a different result."

Sotomayor, in her first session taking questions from the senators, made for an unflappable witness. She spoke slowly and carefully. She took notes on each question and showed no offense at tough questions from Sessions and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R., Utah).

During a break, Sessions said her answers were not responsive, but conceded that she "handled herself well."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) congratulated Sotomayor on her demeanor, which was devoid of any of the sharp remarks the nominee acknowledged she sometimes employs on the bench.

"I must say that, if there's a test for judicial temperament, you pass it with an A-plus-plus," Feinstein said.

Hatch asked how Sotomayor approached the New Haven case, in which white firefighters alleged racial discrimination after being denied promotions.

"People all over the country are tired of courts imposing their will against one group or another without justification," Hatch said.

Sotomayor said the lawsuit, in which New Haven scrapped the results of a promotion test because too few minorities did well, was not about affirmative action.

Sotomayor said her appellate panel "decided that case on the basis of a very thorough 78-page decision by the District Court and on the basis of established precedent."

Democrats devoted much of their time to lobbing friendly questions at her, but also tried probing the nominee's views on their supporters' top concerns, such as abortion rights - a staple of Supreme Court confirmation fights.

Sotomayor, who has not ruled on the issue during her 17 years on the federal bench, would not go beyond what the high court already has said.

Sotomayor said she viewed the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide as settled precedent, and she noted that subsequent court rulings had reaffirmed it.

She said that Gonzales v. Carhart, the high court's decision upholding the federal Partial Birth-Abortion Ban Act, also was settled law.

On the issue of gun control, she defended her appellate panel's decision that a Supreme Court ruling overturning the District of Columbia's gun-control law does not apply to states that want to restrict gun ownership. She said the panel's decision simply followed what the Supreme Court said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee resumes

its confirmation hearing for Sonia Sotomayor at 9:30 a.m. today.

Eight senators still await their turn in the first round of questioning; each will have 30 minutes to query the nominee. Once that round is completed, the committee will go into closed session to discuss Sotomayor's

FBI background check.

The hearing will then go public again with a second round of questioning, in which each Judiciary member is allotted 20 minutes.

EndText