Snowe Announces Support for Judge Sotomayor
July 17, 2009
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) issued the following statement today regarding the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court:
"I was impressed with Judge Sotomayor’s comportment and obvious mastery of the law during this week’s nomination hearings. ?Her presentation reinforced what I learned about her during our meeting in June at which we discussed her judicial philosophy and view of constitutional interpretation - how she methodically approaches each case, the factors she considers in applying law to fact, and how she addresses challenges to legal precedent. ?She appears neither rigid nor dogmatic in her approach to the essential task of constitutional interpretation, as evidenced by her answer when asked to describe whether she subscribed to one or another school of constitutional interpretation: ‘I don’t use labels.’ ?As she told me in our meeting, ‘I look at the law and what Congress was trying to do, and then I look at precedent, because precedent is the evolution of the law.’ ?I was pleased that Judge Sotomayor repeatedly recognized in her responses this week that ‘the job of a judge is to apply the law’ rather than independently make policy, and that it is the law, rather than one’s own sympathies that ‘compels conclusions in cases.’? Barring any unforeseen developments, I expect to join the majority of my Senate colleagues in confirming Judge Sotomayor to a seat on the highest Court in the land before the August recess."
In May, Senator Snowe urged President Obama to nominate a woman during a private meeting in the Oval Office and then followed up on the suggestion with a letter jointly signed by Senator Barbara Boxer.? White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called Senator Snowe to personally inform the Senator of the President’s decision to nominate Judge Sotomayor to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court prior to the official announcement in June.
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