July 29, 2009 – WASHINGTON, D.C – Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, made the following statement on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve as Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
“I watched Judge Sotomayor’s hearings closely, and regrettably, I didn’t hear much to ease my serious concerns about her nomination.
“She still refuses to affirm the clear reading of the Second Amendment as a fundamental right that applies to all Americans. Yet, on the issue of abortion, she speaks of a woman’s constitutional right to ‘terminate’ a child, which is not written in our Constitution and says not a word of legal protections for an innocent unborn child. In fact, when I met with her in June, she said she had never even thought about whether an unborn child has any rights at all.
“Judge Sotomayor continues to defend a court’s ability to cite foreign law in decisions concerning the U.S. Constitution and our domestic laws.
“And while I disagreed with her often-used ‘wise Latina’ comment and statements that judges cannot truly be impartial, her explanations during her hearings defy common sense. Her repeated statements over many years that her prejudices cannot be set aside and that they influence what she chooses to see in a case cannot be reconciled with her claims in the hearing that she will decide cases based on the law and not her personal views. But, instead of acknowledging the error of her previous statements, she insisted they were consistent with her current views, even though they are completely contradictory.
Read the full statement at United States Senator – Jim DeMint.