Grassley statement on scheduled Sotomayor hearings

The following prepared statement from the office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley regarding the July 13 start day for Judiciary Committee Hearings on SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor just hit my inbox. No time to edit, and I've not yet read it to provide commentary. Here's the release:

Earlier today, Chairman Leahy announced July 13th as the start date for the Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor. I'm extremely disappointed with this unilateral decision on the part of my Democratic colleagues. In the past, the decision of when to start these Supreme Court hearings has been a bipartisan one. With the Roberts and Alito nominations, Republicans worked with our colleagues to accommodate Democrat concerns about the timing of the hearings for the highest court in the land. Senators Leahy and Specter held joint press conferences announcing the Roberts and Alito hearings.

I would have hoped that Ranking Member Sessions and Judiciary Committee Republicans would have gotten the same courtesy for President Obama's nominee. Yet I understand that Ranking Member Sessions had no idea that Chairman Leahy was going to the floor to make this July 13th announcement, and that he was not consulted about this decision. Clearly the July 13 date is not a bipartisan decision.

Moreover, July 13th is just not enough time to prepare for a thorough and careful review of Judge Sotomayor's record and qualifications to be a Supreme Court Justice. First, July 13th is a mere 48 days from the nomination announcement to the hearing, which is shorter than the timeframe for Justices Roberts and Alito. Moreover, Justice Roberts had just a few hundred decisions for the Judiciary Committee to analyze - Judge Sotomayor has over 3,000 cases over a 17 year period on the federal bench for us to study. The Alito confirmation hearing timeframe is probably a better comparison since Justice Alito had a similar large number of decisions.

With respect to concerns that criticisms have been lodged against the nominee, we don't control what outside groups say, but I do I know that Senate Republican members have treated Judge Sotomayor fairly and have not engaged in personal attacks. So the idea that Judge Sotomayor needs a hearing scheduled as soon as possible to respond to criticisms by outside groups just doesn't hold water.

In addition, the Judiciary Committee has yet to receive everything we need from Judge Sotomayor. I understand that her questionnaire is not complete, that we have yet to receive all her documentation, memos, speeches and unpublished opinions, that we still don't have her ABA review and FBI background report. It seems like the rushed nature of the process has contributed to the deficiencies in the questionnaire and the number of documents that are still missing. We need all this stuff in order to fully vet the nominee.

Judge Sotomayor has an extensive record, and the July 13 timetable that Chairman Leahy wants to impose will force us to consider a Supreme Court nominee with one of the lengthiest records in recent history in the shortest time in recent history. Republican members got no serious consideration to address concerns about timing, and no consultation or bipartisanship on setting the start date as has been done in the past.

I and my Republican colleagues are committed to give Judge Sotomayor a fair hearing, but we need to thoroughly review her extensive legal record and that takes time. It's important that we do the job right because this is a lifetime appointment and we are talking about the highest court of the land. As my Democrat colleagues have said before, the Senate cannot be a rubberstamp. We have a constitutional responsibility to carefully vet Judge Sotomayor and not rush the process. We owe this to the American people.