Sotomayor fails old Obama criteria, Hatch says

Sen. Orrin Hatch said if senators today use the same criteria that President Barack Obama said he used as a senator to judge judicial nominees, then Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor would be in trouble.

"If those standards were appropriate when Sen. Obama opposed Republican nominees, they should be appropriate now that President Obama is choosing his own nominees," Hatch said in his opening statement at Sotomayor's hearings Monday.

Hatch noted that Obama as a senator "argued that the test of a qualified judicial nominee is whether she can set aside her personal views." Hatch added that Obama, as a senator, also said he evaluated speeches of at least one nominee "for clues about what he called her 'overarching judicial philosophy.' "

And finally, Hatch said that Obama, as a senator, "said that while a nominee's race, gender and life story are important, they cannot distract from the fundamental focus on the kind of judge she will be."

Hatch said Obama used such criteria to decide to vote twice to filibuster the GOP nomination of Judge Janice Rogers Brown, whom Hatch called "an African-American woman with a truly compelling life story," and Obama then later voted against her confirmation.

"But today, President Obama says that personal empathy is an essential ingredient in judicial decisions," Hatch said. "Today, we are urged to ignore Judge Sotomayor's speeches altogether and focus only on her judicial decisions. I do not believe we should do that."

Hatch said he shared the hope expressed by Obama when he was a senator fighting GOP nominations that "we have arrived at a point in our country's history where individuals can be examined and even criticized for their view, no matter what their race or gender."

Hatch said he wishes that Democrats had applied the same standards they are urging for Sotomayor for other past GOP judicial nominees.

For example, he said, Democrats offer as proof of Sotomayor's moderation that she has agreed 95 percent of the time with GOP-appointed colleagues on the 2nd Circuit.

"Joined by then-Sen. Obama, however, many of those same Democratic senators voted against Samuel Alito's confirmation, even though he had voted with his Democratic-appointed 3rd Circuit colleagues 99 percent of the time," Hatch said. "If a compelling life story, academic and professional excellence, and a top ABA (American Bar Association) rating make a convincing confirmation case, (failed GOP nominee) Miguel Estrada would be a U.S. Circuit judge today."

Hatch added, "Whether I vote for or against Judge Sotomayor, it will be by applying the principles I have laid out, not by using such tactics and standards used against these nominees in the past."

Hatch is a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sotomayor's review is the 12th confirmation hearing of a Supreme Court nominee in which Hatch has participated.

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