The confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor will kick off next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Karl Rove testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on proposed amendments to the Military Commissions Act.
On Monday the Senate Judiciary Committee will commence its hearing on "The Nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States." Alex Isenstadt of Politico has a post today describing Republican strategy to portray Sotomayor as "a biased, close-minded judge who's on the wrong side of gun rights and affirmative action cases."
John Bresnahan and Josh Gerstein of Politico report that Karl Rove answered questions in closed session before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday as part of the Committee's investigation into the events surrounding the firing of U.S. Attorneys during the Bush administration. No details from Rove's testimony have emerged. The reporters quote Committee Chairman John Conyers as saying, "He was deposed today. That's all I can tell you." Harriet Miers appeared before the Committee in June, and Rove is reported to be the Committee's last witness. Subcommittees of the House Judiciary Committee will also hold hearings today on laws addressing prison rape and reform of the military commissions.
The Senate Armed Services Committee conducted a hearing yesterday on amendments to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 intended to bring the law into conformity with the Geneva Convention and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as required by the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006). The amendments are contained in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010 (search for this by Bill Number S. 1390 on Thomas - the amendments to the Military Commissions Act appear towards the end of this lengthy bill). The Committee voted unanimously to report this proposal to the floor of the Senate, but there remain some details to be fleshed out regarding due process, the admissibility of coerced confessions, and other matters. I will report on this bill in more detail on Friday.
