The time until the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, is ticking away. July 13th, fast approaches. In the past week there haven’t been many new developments, but some of the ones that have happened have been fairly important.
Late last week, Sotomayor resigned her position in the Belizean Grove, an all women’s group in New York. There had been allegations that her membership in the group constituted a violation of Judicial Ethical Codes, which prohibit membership in any group which discriminates on the basis of religion, sex, race etc. That membership was likely to be a point of contention at the hearings. With this move, Sotomayor has probably defused a major threat to her nomination.
Sotomayor has also been finishing out her meetings with Senators this week. Yesterday, she met with some influential senators including Evan Bayh (D-IN) and John Thune (R-SD), whose influence in the Republican party may be in the ascendency.
Some reports have suggested that some Republicans have been backing off of the idea of strongly opposing the Sotomayor nomination. It has been noticed that the Republicans do not have the numbers to indefinitely block all possible Obama picks. Of course there is little to no chance of bipartisan support of blocking the nomination, so the only real option for the Republicans would be the filibuster. The only problem is that if such a move were successful, the next nomination would be made by Obama. Considering that there were people on the short list which were less desirable than Sotomayor, a filibuster will full support from Senate Republicans seems less and less likely.
Currently the main sticking point for Republicans, seems to be a doubt of Sotomayor’s commitment to the Second Amendment. These doubts stem from a recent ruling, where Sotomayor claimed that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to the states. It is especially important to note that this case was decided after the landmark Heller decision. Now I’m not exactly a lawyer, but I do remember from civics class that the 14th Amendment extended the Bill of Right to the states, and that no state can limit free speech, or make a search without a warrant etc. Anyone else remember that?