US Senate Confirms Sotomayor to SCOTUS
The U.S. Senate just voted 68-31 to make Judge Sonia Sotomayor the next Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She becomes the first Hispanic on the Court and will fill outgoing Justice David Souter’s seat when the Court reconvenes this fall.
Every Democrat voted for Sotomayor. Joining them were Independents Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders Vermont as well as Republicans Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Mel Martinez of Florida, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Kit Bond of Missouri, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
Georgia’s Repubican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson voted no. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) expressed public support for Sotomayor but did not vote Thursday because he is ill.