WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor maneuvered through three days of an often-antagonistic confirmation hearing by portraying herself as a legal mechanic who would stick to precedent and never "make law." But in doing so she revealed almost nothing about the philosophy that would guide her on the high court.
It is not clear whether this play-it-safe strategy was a political calculation, perhaps dictated by the White House, or an accurate reflection of her background as a lower court judge who has not formed broader views on the law.
Either way, it seemed to have worked. By the last day of the hearing, even skeptical Republicans softened toward President Obama's nominee.
They assured her they would not try to block her confirmation, and some conservatives said they might vote for her. A Senate vote on her nomination is expected by early August.
But some prominent legal experts on the left and the right panned her performance.
"Her mantra -- 'I just follow the law, I just follow the law' -- is an insult to the intelligence of the American public," said Abigail Thernstrom, a conservative analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.
Yale Law School professor Heather Gerken said Sotomayor's testimony "drained the life out of the law" and turned it into a "witless, mechanical exercise. . . . It's too bad that what is perhaps the law's most public moment gives the public so little sense of what a remarkable institution it is."
Unlike lower courts, the Supreme Court usually hears cases only when judges are divided on the law and legal precedents. There is no mechanical right answer.
In the next year, the high court will probably decide whether the 2nd Amendment gives all Americans a "fundamental right" to have guns, even if their city or state restricts firearms. And soon after, the court will be pressed to decide whether the Constitution's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws" forbids discrimination against gays and lesbians, including in marriage.
Sotomayor gave no hint about how she would weigh gun rights or gay rights, except to say she had not prejudged the questions.
UC Davis School of Law professor Vikram Amar said the hearing was "less than useless. If Judge Sotomayor won't meaningfully discuss any legal topics in front of the Senate, then what's the point of the hearings?"
