On July 17th, the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, issued a formal endorsement of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. On May 26th, the day President Obama announced his selection of Judge Sotomayor as his nominee to the United States Supreme Court, the Human Rights Campaign hailed the selection but decided to wait until after the Senate confirmation hearing before announcing today's formal endorsement. You can read the release from May 26th here.
The Human Rights Campaign is encouraged by Judge Sotomayor's responses to questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee and her record of fair-minded decisions. Judge Sotomayor has consistently recognized the constitutional right to privacy, first articulated in Griswold, that lays the foundation for recognizing fundamental rights for LGBT people.
"Judge Sotomayor has demonstrated her understanding and commitment to protecting the liberty and equality of all Americans," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "We are particular impressed with her promise to approach questions of equality with an open mind. We are confident that Judge Sotomayor is well qualified to become our nation's next U.S. Supreme Court Justice."
Thursday marked the end of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. A Committee vote is expected sometime next week. Throughout the hearing, Judge Sotomayor was asked by Republican Senators about her stance on marriage equality. Although not able to answer directly to most of the questions because of the pending litigation around marriage equality and the Defense of Marriage Act, Judge Sotomayor vowed to look at the issue in the context of the case that came before her with a "completely open mind."
Learn more about federal judicial nominations and follow our work on these crucial issues on HRC's Equality in the Courts by visiting: http://www.HRC.org/EqualityInTheCourts.
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