Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is in Washington D.C. today on Capitol Hill. Sotomayor’s visit includes a series of meetings with key Senators integral to the confirmation process. Last week President Barack Obama announced Judge Sotomayor as his choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court nominee met with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the panel’s top Republican. These meetings will be the first of several key meetings that the White House has set up between the nominee and Senate leaders. If confirmed, Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be the first Latina to sit on the highest court in the land.
Before entering into her meeting with Senator Reid, Judge Sotomayor and the Majority Leader spent just under two minutes in front of cameras. Sotomayor did not speak, simply smiled while Senator Reid praised her achievements and said “we have the whole package here. We could not have anyone more qualified.” He listed her academic credentials and told Judge Sotomayor and the surrounding reporters that he was “terribly impressed.”
The meeting lasted roughly twenty minutes and Judge Sotomayor was still smiling when she and Senator Reid left his office. After bidding Senator Reid farewell she and her entourage then retired to the Vice President’s office, where they have been spending time between meetings.
The meetings will provide Sotomayor an opportunity to defend herself over GOP concerns that she is a “judicial activist” and a “reverse racist” for comments she made in a 2001 speech in which she said that being a Latina could make her better-suited to be a judge than a white male.
Retiring Justice David Souter also met Tuesday with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
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