Coming up Wednesday
Day 3 of the Sonia Sotomayor hearings will consist of the senators continuing to question Judge Sotomayor in public --- and something you won't see. It's the closed portion of the confirmation hearing.
This happens with every Supreme Court nominee. The members of the Senate Judiciary Committee kick the public out of the room and review the nominee's secret FBI background check. Everyone who wants to be on the Supreme Court has to suffer through the FBI questioning their friends and family, going through their job history, and trying to find out if there's anything about the person that the Senate needs to know.
Anything the FBI finds out is considered to be private, so the Judiciary Committee will review that information with the nominee in private. For example, you can bet the FBI asked Sotomayor's doctor about the condition of her diabetes, but that's not something anyone wants to talk about in public.
There usually aren't any bombshells in that information. If the FBI found something, you can bet that President Barack Obama knew about it before he nominated Sotomayor, and that it wasn't serious enough for him to pass over the judge for the position.
-Jesse J. Holland, AP reporter, Supreme Court
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Quiz: You might be a wonk if ...
Tues Jul 14, 11:30 pm ET
Are you a legal wonk? If you're reading this, we're guessing you might be -- and hey, no offense, we're the ones writing it. Take this quiz to see how you score:
1) When you hear "wonk" you think...
If you answered Wonkette, your friends or yourself add 10 points for each.
2) Do you correct your friends on the pronunciation of Sotomayor?
Yes? Add 10 points.
3) When you hear Estrada do you think Miguel and not Erik?
Add 10 points to your score if you chose Miguel, the President George W. Bush appellate court nominee whose confirmation was filibustered by Democrats, and not the guy who played Ponch on "CHiPs".
4) When you hear Ricci do you think Frank and not Christina?
If you chose the New Haven, Conn., firefighter Frank and not the starlet Christina, add five points.
5) Is your favorite lawyer anyone other than Perry Mason, Matlock or Tom Cruise in a "Few Good Men"?
If so, add five points.
6) Have you watched more than one Supreme Court hearing in your life?
If you've watched two add 10 points. If you've watched up to four add 30 points. If you watched five or more add 100.
7) Define the following terms: Stare decisis, certiorari, Chevron deference, strict scrutiny, rational basis scrutiny, originalism, textualism, constitutional avoidance.
If you answered "define the what now?" or cursed under your breath, lose 10 points. Add five points for each you recognize, 10 for those you could argue in court, 25 for those you could write a textbook entry about.
8) When you think of the "Bar" do you think about getting some drinks or taking the test?
If you choose the test -- or the organization -- over alcohol add 10 points.
So what's your score? Use the key below to find out.
Less than 20: Sorry, but you're not a wonk. Why are you reading this, anyway?
Between 30 and 50: You're a little wonky, but probably not annoying at parties. Yet.
More than 50: You're either a lawyer (so OK, it's your job) or spend WAY too much time watching "Law & Order." Go outside and play sometime, will ya?
Got more? @reply us at @AP_Courtside on Twitter.
-Beth Davidz, AP reporter, Washington
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Supreme Courts around the world, part 4
Tues Jul 14, 11:30 pm ET
ISRAEL: The Supreme Court includes a chief justice (Dorit Beinisch is the first woman to ever serve in the role) and 14 other judges, all selected by a committee of Cabinet ministers, lawmakers, judges and lawyers, officially appointed by the ceremonial Israeli president and forced to retire at 70. Important decisions include a ruling that Israel's West Bank barrier is legal but must be repositioned to reduce harm to Palestinians, recognizing some non-Orthodox Jewish conversions and promoting equal opportunities for woman in the military.
INDIA: The Supreme Court has a chief justice and 25 other judges who are chosen by a collegium of senior Supreme Court judges. The collegium's recommendations need to be formally approved by President of India who almost always signs off on their appointments. The longest-serving Supreme Court judge is generally made the chief justice. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a petition seeking to annul a recent lower court decision decriminalizing gay sex.
SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa does have a 22-member Supreme Court of Appeal — but the highest court in the land is the 11-member Constitutional Court. Appointments to both are made by the president on the advice of the Judicial Services Commission. The members of the Judicial Service Commission have just been replaced and there are concerns that the new members have been chosen for being more sympathetic to President Jacob Zuma and his supporters.
JAPAN: The nation's highest court, the Supreme Court, is composed of the Chief Justice and 14 justices, who are appointed by the Cabinet and confirmed by the Emperor. Arguments and adjudications are made by the 15-panel Grand Bench or one of three sets of 5-member Petty Benches.
Recent key decisions include the June, 2008, ruling that declared unconstitutional a law denying citizenship to children with Japanese fathers and foreign mothers who did not marry, and the October, 2006, decision recognizing the intellectual property rights of employees who invent products.
-Compiled by Dan Perry, AP's Europe-Africa editor, from London with contributions from AP reporters around the world
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Dealing from the bottom of the deck
Tues Jul 14, 7:30 pm ET
The race card can be played from both sides of the table.
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions can point to Sonia Sotomayor saying in 2001 that she hoped that a "wise Latina" would make a better decision than a white male who did not have the same life experiences. And he's done that.
Democrats could point out that Sessions was once blocked from the federal bench two decades ago for making insensitive remarks about the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP. But they haven't.
Nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the federal bench, Sessions, then a federal prosecutor, was attacked by liberals for "gross insensitivity" on matters of race. Notably, he once reportedly joked that the KKK wouldn't be so bad but for its members' use of marijuana. The NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, he allegedly said, were communist-inspired and tried to force civil rights down people's throats.
Sessions' nomination never made it to the Senate floor. His home-state senator, the late Howell Heflin, voted against him.
-Ron Fournier, AP Washington bureau chief, and Laurie Kellman, AP reporter, Congress
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Top 5 things that happened on day 2
Tues Jul 14, 7:10 pm ET
5. The Sessions debut. Sen. Jeff Sessions, the new ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, opened the GOP's questioning by pulling no punches. He asked Sotomayor about remarks where he claimed she implied that a jurist's personal background might affect legal decisions. Sotomayor stuck to her guns: "As I've indicated, my record shows that at no point or time have I ever permitted my personal views or sympathies to influence an outcome of a case."
4. The nominee's emotion. We finally saw Sotomayor laugh, joke and smile after a fairly stoic but polite performance on opening day. Alone at the witness table, she was engaging as she calmly fielded even the most pressing of questions from senators. Who said anything about a temper (see point No. 2 below)? She didn't even seem to come close to losing it.
3. The lighthearted quip. It took a half-dozen Capitol Police officers to remove a loud anti-abortion protester who yelled, "She's a baby killer." The senator who was questioning Sotomayor at the time, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, deadpanned, "I always said I had the ability to turn people on." The crowd, including Sotomayor, erupted in laughter.
2. The temper question. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., put Sotomayor on the spot over whether the New York-born judge had a temper. He raised the subject by citing anonymous comments from the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary from lawyers who said she's "a terror on the bench," that she's "temperamental and excitable" and that she abuses lawyers or makes inappropriate outbursts.
1. The "Wise Latina" comment. Sotomayor was repeatedly asked to defend her 2001 comment suggesting that a "wise Latina" judge would usually reach better conclusions than a white man. She called the remark "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat." She added: "It was bad because it left an impression that I believed that life experiences commanded a result in a case, but that's clearly not what I do as a judge."
-Liz Sidoti, AP reporter, politics
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Ripped from the wire: taking liberties
Tues Jul 14, 7:10 pm ET
Matt Apuzzo tells how Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy did some creative rewriting of history, misquoting Sonia Sotomayor's own words. Check out his take on some of the claims made Tuesday about those comments, and the facts.
And here's that whole post that we previewed earlier today by Nancy Benac. She says in the story: "It's a good thing Sotomayor speaks Sotomayoran. After week upon week in which plenty of other people on the planet interpreted Sotomayor's past comments, the Supreme Court nominee at last got a chance to deconstruct her own words Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee."
Still can't decipher all the wonkish words and legalese being thrown around? Here's a handy guide. And AP reporter Laurie Kellman -- who blogged from the hearing room on Monday -- takes a look today at how Sessions is tiptoeing into the minefield of racial bias claims, which he knows well from the receiving end.
AP Television Writer Frazier Moore says: "The most eye-catching thing about Tuesday's TV coverage of the Sotomayor hearings? The bright red jacket worn by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for her second day before the Senate Judiciary Committee." Read the rest here.
And if you want the full recap, check out this story on the day's questioning.
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Fact check: Did she know about the abortion briefs?
Tues Jul 14, 7:03 pm ET
We got the following fact-check request to @AP_Courtside from @RNCSCOTUS:
Where's @AP_Courtside fact check? #Sotomayor claims never reviewed PRLDEF briefs but AP said she headed litigation cmte http://is.gd/1yQaD
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Sonia Sotomayor about legal briefs that the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund filed with the Supreme Court in abortion cases. Sotomayor, who served on the governing board of the PRLDEF (now called Latino Justice PRLDEF), said she did not review those briefs.
She said a board member's main responsibility is fundraising and added: "I'm sure that a review of the board meetings would show that that's what we spent most of our time on. To the extent that we looked at the organization's legal work, it was to ensure that it was consistent with the broad mission statement of the fund."
True?
The record is murky on this. Here's what we know: Sotomayor was on the board from 1980 to 1992 and headed its litigation committee. During that time, PRLDEF filed briefs arguing against abortion restrictions. Anti-abortion groups have cited those briefs in their opposition to Sotomayor's nomination.
In an interview with the AP, Cesar Perales, the head of the legal advocacy group, said Sotomayor had no direct involvement with the group's legal activities.
"She was on the board of directors, she was not a member of the legal staff, so she was not directly involved in the legal arguments that we presented," Perales said. "Her role was to help us raise funds, set policy, hire the person who would run the organization."
As a board member involved in setting policy, Sotomayor would have been aware of the group's stance, even if she did not review the documents. The New York Times suggested Sotomayor was more closely involved in litigation than she's letting on. In its story, the Times said Sotomayor was involved with and was "an ardent supporter of their various legal efforts."
-Matt Apuzzo, AP reporter who has covered legal affairs since 2000
(UPDATES include Twitter post that prompted the fact check.)
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Opening the door on closed sessions
Tues Jul 14, 6:59 pm ET
We spoke to Larry Margasak, veteran AP congressional reporter who is covering the Sotomayor hearing, about the closed session happening Wednesday.
Q: What's this we hear about a closed session Wednesday?
A: There will be a closed session tomorrow, which means the public and media can't take part. It's closed so that everybody, including the nominee, can go over the FBI reports about Justice Sotomayor. The FBI does background checks on Supreme Court nominees.
Q: Why is it closed?
A: It's closed because they're discussing an FBI background report that is not a public document and contains sensitive information. The FBI asks questions about medical issues (Sotomayor has diabetes) and speaks with friends and family members looking for any relevant matter. Also, the committee has made it a practice to hold the closed session for all nominees so as not to raise a red flag when an issue surfaces that senators believe should be kept private.
Q: Are closed sessions common in Washington?
A: It's common for Supreme Court hearings. It's common for the Intelligence Committee, but other than that it's pretty rare.
Q: Why are closed sessions rare in Washington?
A: Because Congress is a public body and wants to be known as a public body that's transparent.
-Ron Fournier, AP Washington bureau chief
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We're working on your story assignment
Tues Jul 14, 6:50 pm ET
Twitter user @leonspencer accepted our offer to become an assignment editor and Tweeted the following to @AP_Courtside:
As editor-in-charge, more about the New Haven fire fighter(s) preparing to go before Congress. What they think. #Sotomayor
We've assigned AP New Haven correspondent John Christoffersen to the story about the Connecticut firefighter preparing to go before Congress as part of Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. John has already written a draft and we hope to file the story in the next 24 hours. When it's online, we'll give you the link here and on Twitter.
Additionally, AP video editor Alicia Quarles says we'll have a related video featuring firefighters from Washington, D.C., and St. Francis, Wis., sounding off on the reverse-discrimination lawsuit filed by firefighters in New Haven. Sotomayor's appeals court rejected the case that was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The video will be posted here.
-Lauren McCullough, AP social networks and special projects producer
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From the Newspapers: Graphics and Photos
Tues Jul 14, 6:39 pm ET
This Chicago Tribune graphic charts the amount of time between vacancy to oath for Supreme Court justices:
The Washington Post has a photo gallery of the hearing.
And another photo gallery from the Houston Chronicle.
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Firehouses give chilly reaction to Sotomayor hearing
Tues Jul 14, 6:30 pm ET
Firefighters around the country weren't paying much attention to the Sotomayor hearing, but almost all of them had strong feelings about the lawsuit that senators are asking her about.
Rene Archambault, a firefighter for 27 years in Lawrence, Mass., said he hopes Sotomayor's confirmation is derailed because she ruled against white firefighters who had accused New Haven, Conn., of racial bias.
That ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court.
"I hope she doesn't get confirmed, rendering those types of decisions,"said Archambault, a white firefighter in a heavily Hispanic city. "If you were an astronaut, would you want to fly on the shuttle built by the
lower bidder? ... I think you would want the best candidate."
Patrick Driscoll, president of the Lawrence Firefighters Union, Local 146, said he disagreed with her decision but doesn't think it will affect her confirmation.
"Everybody should be held to the same standard and accountability," he said. "If she's trying to turn things around because of race or origin, I don't know if that kind of person being appointed is the right way to go."
The white firefighters challenged New Haven's decision to scrap the results of a promotion test because too few minorities scored high enough to qualify.
"I couldn't say it was fair or not," said Malik Mtima, a black firefighter in Atlanta. "It's not likely that black firefighters just weren't smart enough."
Chief Franklin Lockwood leads a department of 12 white firefighters in St. Francis, Wis. He read the headlines, but didn't think much about the case.
"Those guys are from New Haven. It's not a problem in my back yard."
-Errin Haines in Atlanta, Denise Lavoie in Boston, Dinesh Ramde in St.Francis, Wis.
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Tues Jul 14, 6:22 pm ET
The Judiciary Committee hasn't even finished the first round of questioning from senators. But Chairman Patrick Leahy called a recess for the night until Wednesday 9:30 a.m. EDT. Leahy said the first round will continue then. The committee also will have a traditional closed session to review an FBI report on Sotomayor. Public questioning from the senators will then resume, with each lawmaker allotted 20 minutes per senator. Public witnesses come after that.
-Larry Margasak, AP reporter, Congress
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Tues Jul 14, 6:10 pm ET
The Los Angeles Times wrote several blog items on the Republican senators asking hard questions of Sotomayor.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pressed her on anonymous criticisms of her that appeared in Almanac of the Federal Judiciary.
Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa pressed her on property rights.
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona suggested that she might look to foreign laws for guidance.
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Highlights from Tuesday's FastChat on @AP_Courtside with @ron_fournier
Tues Jul 14, 6:00 pm ET
AP's Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) hosted the daily FastChat on our @AP_Courtside Twitter account to discuss day two of Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. Ron will be back tomorrow and every day during the sessions at 3 p.m. EDT, under the hashtag #rftalk.
Some highlights from today's FastChat:
Conversation between @AP_Courtside and @p_dove and @Hjf325
@p_dove: the exec powers stuff is interesting, focus on wartime instead of massive econ. intervention
@AP_Courtside: Can you sum up in 140 characters what she said about wartime focus? I think I missed that. #rftalks
@p_dove: meant the q's on exec pwr had wartime focus, not answers -- see e.g. Feinstein; q's on Korematsu, Hamdi, Hamdan.
@AP_Courtside: Gotchya. Intrigued by 9/11 remarks. #Sotomayor walking fine line. Can't look anti-terror. Can't look anti-civil liberties. #rftalks
@p_dove: You mean *must* look anti- terror? :-) and agree- 9/11 "regrets" answer oblique. would like to hear q on POTUS economic pwrs
@AP_Courtside: Good topic. What exactly would you ask? Maybe we can pose it to the White House, or a Dem senator. #rftalks http://bit.ly/M7MSw
@p_dove: @AP_Courtside Maybe- Particularly given the drama of executive "persuasion" of banking sector, what are the legal limits of Prez action?
@Hjf325: All Exec Power Q's (war, econ) would be great- tough for her to hypothesize, though, esp given likelihood it comes up
Conversation between @AP_Courtside and @DrJasonJohnson
@DrJasonJohnson: I don't think the #Sotomayor "wise Latina" story is over until Lindsey Graham has his say.
@AP_Courtside: Graham had say
yesterday: "Elections have consequences.'' Translation: Presidents get their way (most of time). #rftalks
-Lauren McCullough, AP social networks and special projects producer
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Tues Jul 14, 5:54 pm ET
How do you spin silence? Senate Republicans are giving it a try -- but it's not clear what they mean.
The office of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell titles this e-mailed press release effort: "Sotomayor's Silence: Judge has a moment of silence when asked if she always finds a legal basis behind her decisions." A click on the link pulls up a 12-second clip of Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., asking: "You've always been able to find a legal basis for every decision that you've rendered as a judge?"
Sotomayor, who's signed onto something like 3,000 decisions in 17 years, appears to think it over. And ... that's it. The clip cuts.
An effort, perhaps, to instill doubt in Sotomayor's insistence that the law commands her decisions? Maybe, but it's not clear from the release. That made us think it was a joke. But no, a call to the contact number for the Senate Republican Communications Center, on the release, confirmed that it's for real.
For the record, after the clip cuts, Sotomayor answers the question. The pair have an extended exchange in which Sotomayor says that every legal decision involves looking at the law and precedent. Kyl pushes back and says it's "not a trick question" and asks if she's ever based a decision on some other factor. It ends like this:
SOTOMAYOR: Exactly, sir. We apply law to facts. We don't apply feelings to facts.
-Laurie Kellman, AP reporter, Congress
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Tues Jul 14, 5:36 pm ET
Supreme Court confirmation hearings can sometimes unearth some interesting personal tidbits. And this one is no exception.
Sonia Sotomayor said she likes to find friends to stay with whenever she goes somewhere new. And she said she's gone some places that are very different from her urban home in Manhattan. Like farms and mountaintops.
Sotomayor does not quite live paycheck-to-paycheck, but she's probably as close to that way of life as any federal judge. Perhaps aware that many people now know her financial assets are minimal, she said she stays with friends even though the friends would be happy to pay to house her elsewhere. She said she prefers to stay with them because she wants to stay connected to people with different experiences than herself.
-Larry Neumeister, AP New York-based federal court reporter, Washington
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A flub that matters -- in Washington, maybe
Tues Jul 14, 5:24 pm ET
Sonia Sotomayor may be a big Yankees fan, but she obviously doesn't know a thing about Washington baseball.
In an exchange with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, she said people have been asking her about becoming a fan of the Washington Senators.
That's a flub.
The team has been known as both the Senators and the Nationals throughout the years, and twice left the city to spawn other franchises. But the current Washington baseball team, now called the Nationals, resumed playing in the nation's capital in 2005.
Maybe someone should give Sotomayor a copy of AP Writer Fred Frommer's
book: "The Washington Nationals: 1859 to Today."
-Jesse J. Holland, AP reporter, Supreme Court
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Tues Jul 14, 5:14 pm ET
The most accurate description of the hearings so far, from Sen. Charles Schumer: "We could do this all day, with sympathy and empathy on one side and ... the rule of law on the other side."
He's right. Republicans' take on Sotomayor: an activist whose rulings are based on her personal background and feelings. Democrats: someone who has followed the rule of law for 17 years on the bench, regardless of her personal feelings.
What prize would you give to the first senator today who DOESN'T ask whether Sotomayor would follow the law or her personal feelings? Or make a baseball analogy?
At least in baseball, the highlights are different each time.
-Larry Margasak
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Tues Jul 14, 5:06 pm ET
Our reporters and the audience are braving chilly temperatures as they watch Sotomayor's testimony.
AP's Nancy Benac sent this on @AP_Courtside from the hearing room: "It is so cold in here that I am wearing Mark Sherman's sweater and sitting on my toes." #sotoshow
(Sherman is an AP Supreme Court reporter who luckily didn't have to brave the chill. He was working elsewhere.)
Also seen on @AP_Courtside was Jesse J. Holland's observation: "You can't tell on TV, but it's freezing cold in the Hart building. Some people have shawls and sweaters on to stay warm."
Twitter user @Kbeninato had a suggestion for Benac: "Get her a Snuggy!"
-Lauren McCullough, AP social networks and special projects producer
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Tues Jul 14, 5:00 pm ET
The White House has been fairly quiet since Judge Sotomayor's confirmation hearing began. Why? They don't want to take the limelight away from Sotomayor.
Do you have questions for the Obama administration about the hearings?
Send an @reply on Twitter to @AP_Courtside and we'll try to get answers.
-Larry Margasak, AP reporter, Congress
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Tues Jul 14, 4:48 pm ET
No hardball questions from Sen. Charles Schumer to Sonia Sotomayor. No surprise. Schumer's her home-state senator and "sherpa" or handler on Capitol Hill.
Some background on Schumer: He wants you to call him "Chuck." He's a talker, and one of the jokes around Capitol Hill is that the most dangerous place in town is between Schumer and a microphone. He's also a very smart, very astute political operator. He chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last year as they reached a near filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. (Two of the Democratic votes are actually independents.) He also is largely credited with pushing Democrats to filibuster President George W. Bush's lower-court judicial nominees, which started the judicial filibuster wars that ended with the confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
And it's his time in the spotlight, after having to work with Hillary Rodham Clinton as the other New York senator. Here's what the Los Angeles Times had to say.
-Jesse J. Holland, AP reporter, Supreme Court
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Tues Jul 14, 4:38 pm ET
Imagine having to listen to someone speak for hours, often repeating themselves. What would you do? Twirl your pencil? Check your BlackBerry? Doodle?
We caught three Republican senators doing all but the latter today during the Sotomayor hearing. The musical selection is ours, with a shout-out to The Chordettes from 1954. We're shooting video of the Democrats today and will show you on Wednesday what some of them do when they think the camera isn't looking.
Watch the videos here.
-Rob Merrill, AP video supervisor
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Instant replay, and replay, and replay
Tues Jul 14, 4:38 pm ET
Confirmation hearings can seem like Groundhog Day.
In this one, Republicans each ask Sonia Sotomayor whether she can rule based on the law, not her personal feelings. Then, the Republican asking the questions starts reading from her speeches. And Sotomayor repeats that she was trying to inspire young audiences. And she says that "decision after decision" in her 17-year record shows that she follows the law.
"I don't base decisions on my feelings or my biases," she told Sen. Jon Kyl. She's said a variation of that -- or even those exact words -- repeatedly throughout the day.
-Larry Margasak, AP reporter, Congress
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Confirmation questions: Abortion, gun rights and ... wardrobe malfunctions?
Tues Jul 14, 4:30pm ET
Michael Jackson has dominated headlines in recent weeks, but sister Janet may come up during the Sotomayor confirmation hearing.
It has been more than five years since Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show touched off a Federal Communications Commission crackdown on broadcast indecency. And the fight is still tied up in court, pitting free-speech advocates against family-values conservatives.
The Supreme Court in May sent the Janet Jackson case back to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which had thrown out the FCC's $550,000 fine against CBS Corp. for the breast-baring incident after concluding the government's actions were arbitrary and capricious.
The justices have ordered the lower court to reconsider that decision in light of their April ruling in the so-called "fleeting expletives" case. In that narrow opinion, the Supreme Court reversed a 2nd Circuit decision and upheld an FCC sanction of Fox Television after Cher and Nicole Richie uttered profanities during live broadcasts of the Billboard Music Awards.
Now both cases have gone back to the appeals courts. And another broadcast indecency fight is also winding its way through the 2nd Circuit, with ABC challenging an FCC fine for showing a woman's behind in an episode of "NYPD Blue."
But many predict the battle could eventually go back to the Supreme Court, forcing the justices to weigh in on a larger constitutional debate over the FCC's authority to regulate broadcast television. So even if Sotomayor won't have much time to watch TV once she is confirmed, she may yet get a crash course on what's on the tube.
-Joelle Tessler, AP technology writer in Washington
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