Sotomayor Hearings

So I watched most of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings and they were for the most part uninteresting.

The ABA Journal lists the Top 10 Quotes From the Sotomayor Hearings. Nothing that exciting.

Jan Crawford Greenburg writes Liberals Lash Out Against Sotomayor Testimony. "Obviously, the name of the game is confirmation, but if you have 60 votes, why not explain your views on the role of the courts and liberal judicial philosophy? Justice Breyer wrote an entire book on this! He and Scalia have gone on the road to debate whether the Constitution is living or dead (I moderated one of their debates and just tried to stay out of the way)."

Jack Balkin asks What are Supreme Court confirmation hearings good for? "What purposes, exactly do these hearings serve? The candidates are instructed to say nothing controversial or reveal their actual views...So what is the point of these hearings, other than an opportunity for dredging up potential scandals and giving the press and Washington, D.C. something to be distracted about? The short answer is that the hearings are often more about the Senate--as representatives of various strands of public opinion--than the candidate. They are opportunities for Senators to make claims about what they believe are the mainstream understandings of the U.S. Constitution."

The Los Angeles Times after the first two days reports Senators out-talk her 2 to 1 by literally counting the words: "Monday was the worst day: senators 23,175, Sotomayor 942" but of course that was just opening statements so obviously the 19 senators would outtalk the one nominee. It then reported that as of Wednesday morning it was 50,082 words by senators and 20,728 by Sotomayor which they call 2:1. They leave the math to you for the second day: Senators: 26,907 Sotomayor: 19,786 which is pretty balanced.

Mark Tushnet wrote in The Senate Judiciary Committee and Henry IV, "I don't fault anyone for doing what today's rituals demand. I just wish that we could figure out some other way to do whatever it is that this particular ritual does."