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For Immediate Release: Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Contact: Karen Schneider or Mary Robbins, 202-588-5180
NWLC CO-PRESIDENT JOINS SENATE LEADERS AT PRESS CONFERENCE ON SOTOMAYOR NOMINATION
(Washington, DC) On the heels of yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote to approve the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center, joined Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy at a press conference Wednesday to support this historic nomination and urge the Senate to quickly confirm her.
Greenberger’s statement at the press conference follows:
“Next week, the Senate will make history – the kind of history that makes our country proud. Upon confirmation, Judge Sotomayor will earn a place in our history books as the first Latina and the first woman of color to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. And the Senate will also make history by confirming an extraordinary person who combines exceptional academic and legal qualifications with an abiding commitment to public service and an inspirational life story that reflects her truly impressive qualities.
“The National Women’s Law Center strongly supports the nomination of this outstanding judge and urges the Senate to swiftly confirm her in a bipartisan way.
“The Center endorsed Judge Sotomayor’s nomination based on an extensive review of her legal record, particularly on a broad range of issues that are important to women, her public statements and her testimony during her confirmation hearings. That review allows for only one conclusion. Judge Sotomayor is an impressive judge who is deeply respectful of legal precedent and who anchors her decisions in the specific facts of each case.
“Judge Sotomayor’s testimony at the hearings underscored this conclusion. She emphasized her respect for precedent – key for women who have secured hard-won legal rights and protections under statutes and the Constitution. She remained steadfast as she explained her understanding of the role of judges and her approach to deciding cases. And she demonstrated her remarkable legal expertise, proving under intensive questioning that she is extremely knowledgeable about the settled law that she promised to respect.
“Judge Sotomayor’s record is one of balance, care, and case-specific rulings. She has approached the rights of particular concern to women respectfully, shown none of the hostility to them that marked some recent nominees to the Court, and grounded her decisions in solid precedent.
“It is not surprising, therefore, that Judge Sotomayor’s record includes rulings on behalf of those seeking to assert their right to be free from discrimination, to protection by federal courts, to their right to privacy, including as applied to reproductive rights, and to their access to the courts.
“The selection of this exceptional woman underscores how much this nation can benefit from the talents and skills of women and people of color. She would become the third woman to sit on the Supreme Court and bring the number of sitting female Justices back up to two. As Justice Ginsburg said in May, ‘Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. . . It shouldn't be that women are the exception.’
“Judge Sotomayor is a remarkably qualified, gifted and inspiring woman who belongs on the Supreme Court. Now that the Judiciary Committee has approved her nomination, the Senate should confirm her resoundingly and without delay.”
The Senators and Greenberger were joined by Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, Chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, in calling for the Senate to confirm Sotomayor.
NWLC’s report on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s 17-year judicial record, her legal experience and activities, her speeches, and her four days of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee is available here: www.nwlc.org/pdf/SotomayorReport.pdf
The National Women’s Law Center has extensive expertise in the legal issues of central importance to women, in judicial nominations – including Supreme Court nominations – and in how Supreme Court rulings have affected women and their families. For more about NWLC or to interview Marcia Greenberger, please contact Karen Schneider at kschneider@nwlc.org or at 202-588-5180.
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