Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings Scheduled For July 13

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings would begin on July 13. However, Politico reports that Republicans are "infuriated." Apparently Committee chairman Pat Leahy set the date "without informing Republicans on the Judiciary Committee"; Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), the senior Republican on the committee, said, "I don't think it’s a good way to begin the proceedings." Leahy pointed out that this schedule follows what was done for Justice John Roberts in 2005: "That agreement was reached before the Committee received the answers to the bipartisan questionnaire, and before the Committee had received any of the 75,000 pages of documents from his years working in Republican administrations. If 48 days were sufficient to prepare for that hearing, in accordance with our agreement and the initial schedule, it is certainly adequate time to prepare for the confirmation hearing for Judge Sotomayor." In the meantime, former First Lady Laura Bush, who hoped her husband would replace Sandra Day O'Connor with a female justice (instead, Samuel Alito was chosen) said of Sotomayor's nomination, "As a woman, I'm proud that there might be another woman on the court. I wish her well."