Judiciary Committee Approves Sotomayor

By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 28, 2009 11:09 AM CDT
Judiciary Committee Approves Sotomayor
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy talks with Jon Kyl during the committee's markup vote on the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, July 28, 2009, on Capitol Hill.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. The committee voted 13-6 this morning to send Sotomayor's nomination to the full Senate, where she's expected to be confirmed easily next week. Just one Republican, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, joined Democrats in the vote.

The panel's chairman, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, called Sotomayor a restrained, fair, and impartial judge who has not favored any one group of people over another. But the top Republican, Alabama's Jeff Sessions, said her speeches and some rulings revealed beliefs that conflict with the idea of blind justice and fidelity to the law. (More Sonia Sotomayor stories.)

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