From LifeSite:
McCain Says No to Sotomayor as Senate Debate Opens
By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the full Senate today begins debating the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. John McCain has sided with conservative Republicans who say they will not back the candidate based on her record of judicial activism.
Sen. McCain, Obama’s rival for the presidency last year, said he had "great respect" for Sotomayor, but her "long public record of judicial activism" stood in the way of McCain’s support.
"Regardless of one’s success in academics and in government service, an individual who does not appreciate the common-sense limitations on judicial power in our democratic system of government ultimately lacks a key qualification for a lifetime appointment to the bench," said McCain. "For this reason, and no other, I am unable to support Judge Sotomayor’s nomination."
While the majority of Republicans reportedly plan not to support Sotomayor, the reasons aired have largely concerned the candidate’s judicial activism and narrow interpretation of the Second Amendment, rather than her support for legalized abortion as decided in the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
Sotomayor told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that she supported Roe as "settled law," but did not express the same loyalty toward the Supreme Court’s upholding the partial-birth abortion ban in 2007.
Prior to the hearings, pro-life leaders expressed concern over Sotomayor’s largely hidden position on abortion, and pointed to extremely pro-abortion legal briefs authored by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund under Sotomayor while she served as a board member.
Just before the Judiciary committee approved Sotomayor 13-6 last week, NARAL announced their support for the candidate after weeks of uncertainty about her position on abortion, due to her lack of a direct record on the issue.
"We took into consideration the significant and strong support [Sotomayor’s] nomination has garnered from some of our most committed pro-choice allies in the Senate as well as President Obama’s consistent record of support for Roe v. Wade and his established record of nominating to key posts individuals who share his principles," wrote the group.
Senators are expected to vote on Sotomayor by the end of this week, before departing for their summer recess. With none among the Democrat supermajority having expressed opposition, the nomination is expected to win confirmation easily.
On Monday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs cast the future tally of Republican votes for the pro-abortion judge as a test of the GOP’s "bipartisanship."
"There’s an interesting vote that we’ll see in the next couple days on the Supreme Court, and we’ll see where everybody is on bipartisanship," said Gibbs.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Senate Judiciary Committee Supports Sotomayor 13-6
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072804.htmlNARAL Officially Backs Sotomayor
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072103.htmlSotomayor Calls Abortion a "Right" at Final Hearing
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09071614.html
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Thank God for McCain’s stand. He has a sound mind which shows a true respect for the Judiciary of our government. I will pray she does not get confirmed- NARAL has given their support to her- nuf said.
Where the Hell was this political spine last year when it actually counted?
I guess “reaching across the aisle” wasn’t such a great electoral strategy, Senator. And the result: a socialist reshaping the American judiciary.
Yeah, Gibbs would have said the same thing about “bipartisanship” back in the 1850s during debates about slavery.
Join up with the cause of evil “for fellowship,” as the Duke of Norfolk says to Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons? God bless McCain for saying no.
Well, finally he got a spine.
It’s about stinkin’ time! I am so ready for somebody to take a stand in D.C.
And I’m sure Gibbs thinks the administration has done wonderfully on finding “common ground”.
I think this country is going to get what it voted for. Kyrie eleison!
Hey Senator-where was your ‘spine’ last year?
I’m afraid for our country if this woman gets confirmed.
As Dr. Eric said, ‘Kyrie eleison’!
We need to speak out more and more about the Supreme Court’s former support of slavery and get it ingrained in peoples’ heads that the Supreme Court can be (and has been) Supremely Wrong, as they were about slavery, and as they were more recently about Abortion.
It is also worth remembering that the Supreme Court NEVER OVERTURNED their decision in Dred Scott. If it had not been for President Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, and the U.S. Congress finally getting some backbone and passing laws to eradicate it, slavery would still be the law of the land in the U.S.
We need to be as proactive in reshaping Congress as we are in trying to keep anti-Life judges off the Court. You can’t count on the Supreme Court, filled by people who possess Supreme Egos and who were only put there because they passed one party or the other’s litmus test, ever overturning Roe v. Wade.