Hatch, Cornyn Get on GOP's Anti-Sotomayor Bandwagon

Sessions grills Supreme Court nominee over military controversy

(NEWSER) - Elena Kagan began today’s round of confirmation questioning by declaring that it would be inappropriate for her to discuss how she might rule on future Supreme Court cases. That's ironic, the New York Times notes, because Kagan once wrote that confirmation hearings had taken on “an air of vacuity and farce”—because nominees wouldn’t discuss their views. She said Orrin Hatch counseled her to revise her view and be more cautious. More»

Confirmation hearings must focus on big picture

(NEWSER) - The process Elena Kagan once derided as a "vapid and hollow charade" gets under way tomorrow when the solicitor general appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee as President Obama's second Supreme Court nominee. "Instead of playing cat-and-mouse with the nominee about how she would rule in future cases, senators should think big," the Los Angeles Times editorial board counsels. Specific questions to ask:

• Is the high court more like an umpire or an empathetic decision-maker?

Humanitarian groups can't give 'material support' to terrorists

(AP) - The Supreme Court today upheld a US law that bars "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups. The court ruled, 6-3, that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even training and advice for entirely peaceful and legal activities. "Such support frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends," John Roberts said in the majority opinion. More»

Says she burst into tears when Obama gave her the news

(NEWSER) - Sonia Sotomayor sat by the phone for 12 hours waiting for the call. When it finally rang, “I had my left hand over my chest, trying to calm my beating heart,” she recalls in an interview with C-SPAN. When President Obama offered her the Supreme Court appointment, “I caught my breath and started to cry and said, ‘Thank you, Mr. President.'” More»

Poll numbers plummeted amid Sotomayor, Gates controversies

(NEWSER) - President Obama’s downward opinion-poll trajectory among whites seems to be linked to the “blackening” of his image, writes Joan Walsh in Salon. It accelerated during two racially charged moments this summer: Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, marked with debate over her “wise Latina” comment, and the Henry Louis Gates controversy. At such times, Walsh argues, “there's no denying, he got blacker to a segment of the white population.” More»