Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings, Day 3, Part III
We’ll have four Dems in a row: Klobuchar, Kaufman, Specter, and Senator Al Franken (!).
Oops, just two up before lunch.
Klobuchar: How patient your mother has been. She has a lot she’d like to say. Plenty of stories. I thought I might miss my questioning opportunity. Much more patient than my mother has been, leaving messages like, "how long do these guys have to go on. DiFi was brilliant, what are you going to do?" Coburn, Heller. In Maloney, bound by precedent in Circuit. Keep an open mind of SCOTUS takes up question.
SS: Take every case case by case.
Klobuchar: Whitehouse, PRLDF, minor follow-up, ABA code of conduct bars board members from engaging in litigation because of lack of lawyer-client relationship. Not going into Wise Latina, 1994, provided to Senate for confirmation in 1997, 1998, no Senator asked you about it.
Klobuchar: What I want to talk about: criminal prosecutor. One thing I have found, if come into Crim system thinking you can change ills of society, not where those kinds of changes can be made.
SS: By time criminal defendant ends up in Court, they’ve been shaped by their lives. If you want to give people best opportunity for success, it has to be through early childhood forward. Pay attention to education, message not lost on me when I became a prosecutor. Success of communities depends on improving education and parental participation.
Klobuchar: Limited role judge has to not make laws. Is that correct?
SS: Focusing on different part of that, as prosecutor, role not what punishment should have been, set in law.
Klobuchar: Tough decisions you have to make as prosecutor.
SS: I was influenced by television show, passion as prosecutor, Perry Mason. One of the first lawyers portrayed on television. In all cases except one, he proved his client innocent. Got actual murderer to confess. End of episode, met with character that played prosecutor. Perry said, expend all that effort to have charges be dismissed. Prosecutor: no, my job is to do justice. I thought that’s quite amazing. Look at each case individually. Some times to bring tough charge. Periodically look at quality of evidence, say there’s just not enough.
Klobuchar: Want to take pragmatic experience as prosecutor. A month ago, baggage carrier, Are you going to vote for that woman? Aren’t you worried that her emotions get in front of the law. Read more →