Republican: Sotomayor records need more time

Some 300 boxes of records recently turned up in connection with her work

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updated 6:04 p.m. ET June 28, 2009

WASHINGTON - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday the committee preparing for hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor needs time to review 300 boxes of records that recently turned up in connection with her work for a legal advocacy group.

McConnell said the Senate Judiciary Committee needs to examine the materials from the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF. Hearings are scheduled to begin July 13 on President Barack Obama's nomination of Sotomayor, a federal appeals court judge.

"The committee needs to have access to that material and time to work through it so we don't — so we know all the facts before we vote on a person who's up for a lifetime job," McConnell said on "Fox News Sunday."

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Republicans have complained that the hearings for Sotomayor are taking place too soon. Democrats say the schedule is in keeping with hearings for recent Supreme Court nominees.

On Friday, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, wrote to Sotomayor to request additional information related to her career as a lawyer, prosecutor and judge.

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In the letter, Sessions noted that he had been in contact with counsel for the PRLDEF and that the group's archives contained more than 300 boxes of material that Sotomayor's representatives were searching in connection with her nomination.