Norton on Why Sotomayor Prevailed (7/28/09)

Norton on Why Sotomayor Prevailed

July 28, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today issued the following statement regarding the Senate Judiciary Committee decision for approving the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, and sending her nomination to the full Senate for a final vote.

"Judge Sonia Sotomayor's 17-year record of consistent fair judging according to the rule of law and precedent prevailed today over selected lines from speeches and guesses about how she might vote. Sen. Leslie Graham, the only Republican who voted for Sotomayor, deserves credit for first investigating and then voting, using the best evidence available, Judge Sotomayor's decisions on the bench. Some of Graham's colleagues, however, appear to have taken their leadership from the blogs and far right-wing special interests. Finding nothing on the bench indicating the Judge's views on their special issues, they voted against her anyway. The National Rifle Association, in particular, has missed no opportunity for negative leadership in this Congress since it attached a gun amendment to a civil rights bill, the D.C. House Voting Rights Act. However, last week, presented with the madness of allowing concealing and carrying guns across state lines, today with the Senate Committee nomination, and we believe soon with the D.C. Voting Rights Act, Congress is beginning to understand the independent and principled judgment that the majority of Americans expect them to exercise. As a result, when Judge Sotomayor is confirmed, as expected, the country, with pride in the new Justice and the President and the Senate, which elevated her, will cross another historic milestone."