The Washington Post
By NEIL A. LEWIS
July 29, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, moved closer to taking her seat on Tuesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly approved her nomination and sent it on to the full Senate.
But the contentious public hearings this month and Tuesday’s largely partisan committee vote demonstrated that judicial confirmations remain a hotly contested political and ideological battleground with implications for Mr. Obama’s future choices for the courts.
The committee’s vote was 13 to 6, with Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina the only Republican joining the panel’s 12 Democrats in voting for the nomination. The action cleared the way for a Senate floor vote next week for Judge Sotomayor, who would be the 111th justice to serve on the Supreme Court, the first Hispanic and the third woman.
She is widely expected to win confirmation, as Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate and five Republicans, including Mr. Graham, have said they would vote for her.
But Senate Republicans have used the Sotomayor nomination to signal that they are determined to deny Mr. Obama an easy path as he sets about filling dozens of seats on the federal appeals courts and possibly additional vacancies on the Supreme Court.
Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/us/politics/29confirm.html?bl&ex=1249012800&en=4b9c28f3756f4503&ei=5087%0A
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