Protesters Disrupt Sonia Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearing

By James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Anti-abortion protesters twice interrupted Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Monday, but a top Republican said almost nothing can stop her from being approved.

"No Republican would have chosen you, judge, and that's just the way it is," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained to Sotomayor.

But, he added, to a burst of laughter, "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're gonna be confirmed."

Earlier, during statements by two Democratic senators, pro-life demonstrators leapt to their feet to bellow at Sotomayor to protect the unborn from "murder."

There were few other fireworks during the hearings, however, before it was adjourned until Tuesday.

Citing past remarks by Sotomayor that policy is made in the appeals courts, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Aabama, said "These statements are shocking and offensive to me."

"There is no question you have a stellar resume," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told her.  "I am concerned with some of your statements."

But Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the former committee chairman who shepherded one of Sotomayor's past confirmations, said some things he's heard about her recently from fellow Republicans "have been intemperate and unfair."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) came out swinging. He made the highly unusual move of speaking both from the panel as a Senate Judiciary Committee member and then was to later introduce Sotomayor from the witness chair.

"Given her extensive and even-handed record, I am not sure how any member of this panel can sit here today and seriously suggest that she comes to the bench with a personal agenda," Schumer thundered from the committee's bench.

More coverage from the New York Daily News.