Challengers Will Call White Firefighter to Testify
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By Greg Stohr and Christopher Stern
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Republican senators will call Frank Ricci, a white firefighter who won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on race discrimination last month, to testify about Sonia Sotomayor at her high court confirmation hearings next week.
Ricci is among more than two dozen people listed as potential witnesses by the Senate Judiciary Committee for the hearings that begin July 13. Sotomayor was a member of a three- judge federal appeals court in New York that ruled against white firefighters in the race case from New Haven, Connecticut.
Sotomayor is likely to face a barrage of questions from Republicans about her rulings, speeches and work for a Puerto Rican advocacy group. During some practice sessions, she at times grew testy, though she later succeeded in controlling her temper, said one person involved in the preparation.
As with previous nominees, Sotomayor will aim to convey her understanding of the law while simultaneously saying little about her views on concrete legal issues. The likelihood that Sotomayor’s Senate supporters have enough votes to confirm her means she will have little incentive to respond with specifics.
“All they can do is get themselves in trouble by giving an answer, and that’s particularly the case with a nominee like Sonia Sotomayor where the votes appear to be on her side,” said Christopher L. Eisgruber, provost of Princeton University in New Jersey and author of “The Next Justice: Repairing the Supreme Court Appointments Process.”
Democrats control the Senate 60-40, and Republicans would face political difficulties in opposing the court’s first Latina nominee. After losing the 2008 elections, the party is seeking to improve its standing among Hispanics, the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. electorate.
Stepping Up Criticism
Republicans nonetheless have stepped up their criticism of Sotomayor, 55, President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, questioned her handling of the firefighter case, which the Supreme Court resolved last week by overturning a decision by Sotomayor and two other judges.
“Is she allowing her personal or political agenda to cloud her judgment and favor one group of individuals over another, irrespective of what the law says?” McConnell asked on the Senate floor this week.
The New Haven case involves 17 white firefighters and one Hispanic who sued when the city canceled planned promotions because no blacks scored well enough on tests to qualify.
Three-Judge Panel
Sotomayor joined a three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in saying the city was justified because it was seeking to head off an anticipated lawsuit by black firefighters. The Supreme Court reversed the decision on a 5-4 vote.
In her confirmation practice sessions, Sotomayor has defended her handling of the case, saying the panel was abiding by previous 2nd Circuit rulings and that the Supreme Court’s majority changed the law, the person involved in the preparations said.
“My guess is that she’ll be asked about that, and the explanation will be that she was following a precedent of the 2nd Circuit,” said Marge Baker, executive vice president of the Washington-based People for the American Way, which supports the nomination.
Republicans say they will also press Sotomayor on her statement in a 2001 speech that “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” She made similar comments in other speeches.
Minority Rights
They also will ask her about her 12-year affiliation with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, a group that pressed suits on job discrimination, bilingual education and minority voting rights.
As a member of the group’s board, Sotomayor signed a 1981 memo opposing the restoration of the death penalty in New York. The memo said that capital punishment “is associated with evident racism in our society.”
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Judiciary Committee’s top Republican, said on the Senate floor that the group is “clearly outside the mainstream.”
Sotomayor this week received the endorsement of almost 1,200 law professors. They said in a letter to lawmakers that Sotomayor’s opinions “reflect careful attention to the facts of each case and a reading of the law that demonstrates fidelity to the text of statutes and the Constitution.”
Among the witnesses Democrats plan to call to testify for Sotomayor are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former FBI Director Louis Freeh and former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Bloomberg is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
In addition to Ricci, Republicans plan to call Sandy Froman, a former president of the National Rifle Association, a Fairfax, Virginia-based group that promotes gun ownership rights, and Dr. Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, a Washington-based group that opposes abortion.
