Sotomayor Confirmed to Supreme Court (with video)
Seth Stern - Congressional Quarterly
Editor's Note: The Senate vote was 68-31. All Democrats and Independents (except Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was absent for health reasons) voted to confirm. Nine Republicans joined the Democrats voting to confirm - Alexander, Bond, Collins, Graham, Gregg, Lugar, Martinez, Snowe and Voinovich. Thirty-one Republicans voted against confirmation including Sen. John Mc Cain (R-Arizona). vh/TO
Supporters at a rally Wednesday endorse the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court near the US Capitol. The Senate confirmed Sotomayor on Thursday in a 68-31 vote. (Photo: Getty Images)
A little more than three months after Justice David H. Souter announced his intention to retire, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to become the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice. The vote was 68-31.
The outcome had been foretold for weeks, given the Democrats' overwhelming margin in the Senate and Sotomayor's competent but cautious performance during her four-day confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee in July.
Also see below:
Individual Votes on Confirmation of Justice Sotomayor •
Transcript | President Obama's Remarks on the
Confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court •
Nine Republicans joined all Democrats present and two independents in voting for Sotomayor, who becomes the third woman to serve on the high court. She has served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit since 1998.
Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., 91, who has been absent much of the year due to illness, arrived in the chamber in a wheelchair and left immediately after voting to confirm Sotomayor. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who broke her ankle last month and underwent surgery last week, also was wheeled into the chamber still wearing hospital bracelets on her wrist. But Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is being treated for a brain tumor, was not present.
Senators sat quietly through the roll call, rising to cast their votes as their names were called. The sole late arrival was Jim Bunning, R-Ky, who signaled his vote before reaching his desk. Standing in the back of the chamber was Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., who hugged Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. after the presiding officer, Al Franken, D-Minn., announced the outcome.
Schumer was greeted with applause and cheers from a group of civil rights activists gathered outside the chamber after the vote. "Good work, everybody," Schumer said to the group. "What a day!"
After the confirmation vote, the Supreme Court announced that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will swear in Sotomayor on Saturday at the court. The court will hold a formal investiture ceremony on Sept. 8.
"This is a wonderful day for Judge Sotomayor and her family, but I also think it's a wonderful day for America," President Obama said after the vote had concluded.
A majority of the GOP caucus united against Sotomayor, a sign of difficulty to come for President Obama's future nominees should Democrats lose seats in the next year's midterm elections or during a possible second term.
Given Republican resistance to Sotomayor, liberal activists say that Obama should not hesitate nominating a liberal should there be another Supreme Court vacancy.
But such a move could make it more difficult to hold on to the votes of moderate Democrats who lined up behind Sotomayor despite opposition from the National Rifle Association.
Leahy joked that some Republicans would have voted no even "if President Obama had nominated Moses the law giver."
Sotomayor, 55, is not likely to change the ideological balance of the court; Souter was part of the four-member liberal bloc that includes Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
Two of those liberals are seen as most likely to retire next. Ginsburg, whom President Bill Clinton nominated in 1993, was treated for pancreatic cancer earlier this year. Stevens, nominated by President Gerald R. Ford in 1975, is 89 years old.
Much more could be at stake if one of the four conservative justices leaves the court, or swing-vote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, giving Obama an opportunity to shift the court's ideological makeup.
Strong Credentials
Republicans faced a delicate balancing act as they tried to critique Sotomayor without alienating Hispanic voters. Her strong legal credentials - the American Bar Association gave her its highest rating - and compelling life story did not make things any easier for Republican opponents.
The daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, Sotomayor grew up in a Bronx housing project. She graduated at the top of her class at Princeton University and Yale Law School, and had a lengthy career as a federal prosecutor, corporate lawyer and federal judge.
President Bill Clinton named her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1992, and President George H.W. Bush elevated her to the 2nd Circuit in 1998.
Detractors found little fodder in her 17-year record on the bench, first as a U.S. District Court judge and then on the 2nd Circuit. Instead, they focused on a series of speeches in which she suggested a "wise Latina" or "wise woman" judge might reach a better decision than a white male judge.
Sotomayor's performance at her confirmation hearing last month gave Democrats all the assurance they needed to vote for her and provided little new ammunition for her critics.
Republicans said she had not eased their concerns that she would be unable to put aside her personal beliefs while considering cases as a Supreme Court justice.
But GOP leaders opted against attempting a filibuster, which would have been sure to fail, and ignored pleas from Republican activists to try to delay the confirmation hearing or at least the floor vote until after the August recess.
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Kathleen Hunter and Keith Perine contributed to this story.