Protesters Disrupt Sonia Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearing

By U.S. News Staff

July 13, 2009 RSS Feed Print

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.

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In an attempt to be a bit more objective...

Painting spots on an elephant doesn't make it a leopard. Much the same way, Supreme Court justices that consider themselves Roman Catholic aren't necessarily Roman Catholic. A person's religious affiliaton is no different than their occupational affiliation. In other words, claiming I am a doctor doesn't make me a doctor.

Even people that cite the separation of church and state end up relying on their OWN religious views (such as the author of "Will Pope control U.S. Supreme Court") to support their argument: "There never was a God." Regardless of one's personal religious beliefs or disbeliefs, abortion is not a matter of religion. Abortion at it's core, as far as the law is concerned, is a matter of life, health and medical practice. The fact that religion became intertwined with the issue is an altogether seperate topic.

In Roe v. Wade, the Court held that a mother may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes viable.’" The Court defined viable as being "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid," adding that viability "is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks. The Court said that, after viability, abortion must be available when needed to protect a woman's health, as defined in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton.The Court rested these conclusions on a previously recognized constitutional right to PRIVACY emanating from the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

No where does it say anything about God, Catholicism, or tithing.

Citing figures from the state of Michigan, which keeps close track of abortions performed in their state of more than 9 million people, only 33 out of the 26,000-plus abortions performed in that state last year were deemed "medically necessary."

In a 1987 survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute in which abortion patients were asked why they were having an abortion, only 1 percent of the 1,900 women questioned named rape or incest. And 95 percent of those who mentioned rape or incest named other reasons as well for deciding to abort, the institute said.

All that being said, when you review the number of abortions compared to why a patient elects to have an abortion, the facts speak for themselves.

Alan of PA 12:05PM July 19, 2009

Six Roman Catholics have the majority vote in the Court. If subjects of the pope, a foreign king, try to nullify Roe v Wade, they must be reminded that Roe is not totally about "privacy." It's about MOBILITY of women, their freedom to MOVE AROUND - -to GO where they want to go. They can't be like Muslim women, forced to stay home until a male relative drives them around like bedroom furniture. Until 1973, the CIVIL government had lots of tax-paid workers prosecuting people who broke the church law that says abortion is crime. The law still exists. It's part of the Code of Canon Law. The law used to be Canon 2350 but the number changed. Abortion means a potential tither is not born. Corpses don't tithe, so church law bans suicide. If a person pays ten per cent lifetime tithe on a steady yearly income of $40,000, for forty years, that's $160,000. (.10 x $4,000 x 40 = $160,000. If the person pays extra fees for weddings, baptisms, confirmations, funerals and church school, that's a lot of money to the church. There never was a God. He was invented to create a reason to tithe. If preachers were not paid, they'd find other work. Civil governments must not enforce church law. That's what "separation of church and state" means.

aura dawn veirs of CA 9:12PM July 13, 2009

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