The Senate judiciary panel will begin considering President Barack Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court on Monday, July 13. If confirmed, Sotomayor, a federal appeals court judge, would be the first Hispanic female justice to sit on the Supreme Court.
Starting Monday at 10 a.m. ET, the NewsHour will offer live coverage of the hearings, hosted by senior correspondent Judy Woodruff and legal analyst Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal, on many PBS stations. Live streaming coverage of the hearings will also be available on the Online NewsHour's Supreme Court Watch page and on participating local PBS station Web sites.
During the NewsHour's live coverage of the hearings, we'll be collecting your questions -- on the proceedings, Sotomayor's record and what the process means for both lawmakers and the high court. Watch for answers to some of the inquiries both on-air and online.
Among the questions answered during Monday's coverage: @jamesbedell asked on Twitter: How does this hearing compare to hearings of the recent past?
Marcia Coyle answers:
I can't really say for sure yet until we get into the questioning if it has changed much. As I said earlier, some of the issues will have changed. I tend to take a broader look. I don't think much has really changed in terms of the Senate Judiciary Committee over the years. They still have these hearings in the same type of format, ask the same types of questions depending on what issue is current, what court case is controversial.
But what has changed the process has really come from the outside. The first televised hearing -- television has played a huge role in how these hearings take place. The rise and growth of special interest groups, particularly after the nomination and hearings of Robert Bork. We had many more interest groups interested in Supreme Court nominations. Besides that, we have what I call the "well-managed nominee." The White House has learned how to prepare nominees for these hearings. They not only have someone shepherd them through the hearings but also prepare them with questions.
Among the questions answered during Tuesday's coverage:
Gary J. McManu from El Dorado Hills, Calif. asked: What did Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor mean by the phrase "fidelity to the law" in respect to her philosophy?
Marcia Coyle answers:
I think she was talking about being an appellate court judge and having to apply precedent as well as, having to apply precedent, past decisions not only of Supreme Court decisions but of her own circuit. But also fidelity to the law in terms of the texts of statutes and how they have been interpreted by the Supreme Court and her own circuit. She says that's what drives her. She applies those precedents, those interpretations to the facts before her.
Janice Young in Lake Oswego, Ore. asked: Sotomayor is a catholic; she will be the 6th catholic on the court... With the recent insinuation of religion into our civic life, how would her religion influence her?
Marcia Coyle answers:
I think all of the studies that have been done of her record really do show that she will vote for and against certain classes of litigants really based on the facts of the case before her. You can't say that she is pro this or pro that straight down the line depending on whatever legal issue comes before her, she is not.
It's interesting the faith question because I don't think the justices always vote -- whatever the Catholic view might be -- there so many isses that have nothing to do with religion, but even in areas that do, I don't think they vote always straight down the line. Justice Kennedy, for example, is Catholic and he has been on the side of separation of church and state, not always accomodating church.
Her heritage is Catholic, there have been some concerns raised by pro-choice groups that that might indicate that she would be anti-abortion but we have very little evidence of that right now. I'm sure we're going to get more questions about it.
