REPUBLICANS are unlikely to block President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the supreme court with a filibuster, the party’s top member of the senate judiciary committee said yesterday.
Alabama’s Jeff Sessions said that Ms Sotomayor’s legal philosophy required close examination but he did not foresee Republicans using procedural rules to prevent a vote on her nomination.
“The nominee has serious problems. But I would think that we would all have a good hearing, take our time, and do it right,” Mr Mr Sessions said. “And then the senators cast their vote up or down based on whether or not they think this is the kind of judge that should be on the court. I don’t sense a filibuster in the works.”
Ms Sotomayor needs just 51 senate votes to be confirmed but 60 votes are required to override a filibuster that could extend the debate on her nomination indefinitely.
At present, the Democrats control 59 senate seats but that number could rise to 60 if Al Franken is confirmed as Minnesota’s senator following a lengthy legal dispute.
Ms Sotomayor, who would be the first Hispanic and the third woman ever to sit on the supreme court, will start visiting senators on Capitol Hill next week.
White House senior adviser David Axelrod yesterday defended Ms Sotomayor’s role in rejecting an appeal by white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, who claimed that they were denied promotion because no African-Americans passed a qualifying test.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh accused Ms Sotomayor of displaying “reverse racism” in turning down the firefighters’ appeal.
“I don’t know exactly what his legal expertise is. But if he had it, what he would know is that she ruled in that case on the law,” Mr Axelrod said.
“In fact, the decision was rendered in keeping with the precedent of the Second Circuit. And in the brief opinion, the panel ruled – the panel said they had felt solicitude for the firefighters but they were bound by the precedent in the circuit.”
The loudest opposition to Ms Sotomayor has come from Republicans and conservatives outside the senate, including former governors Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who are expected to seek their party’s presidential nomination in 2012.
“The appointment of Sonia Sotomayor for the supreme court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama’s campaign promises to be centrist and think in a bipartisan way were mere rhetoric,” Mr Huckabee said.
“Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the ‘Extreme Court’ that could mark a major shift.”
Ms Sotomayor has ruled in few cases about abortion, traditionally the most sensitive issue for conservatives considering supreme court nominees.
However, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said his group, which campaigns against abortion and gay rights, would look into her record aggressively.
“This has not been an administration that goes through things with a fine tooth comb,” Mr Perkins said.
“They leave a lot just barely under the surface, where a little bit of digging will bring it out – whether it is tax problems or whatever. There may be something in her judicial background that could be explosive. So I have got my metal detector out.”
Some Republican strategists fear the party could lose the Hispanic vote for a generation if they oppose the first Latina supreme court nominee. The party’s opposition to immigration reform has already alienated millions of Hispanics, the fastest-growing voter group in the US.
