Sotomayor deflects questions on abortion

updated 7:17 p.m. ET July 15, 2009

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor sidestepped volleys of pointed questions on abortion and gun rights from senators Wednesday, keeping her demeanor cool and her opinions mostly private as she neared the end of a marathon grilling on the road to all but sure confirmation.

After some 10 hours of questioning by Judiciary Committee senators over two days, Sotomayor had yet to make a slip — certainly not the gaffe that even Republicans concede would be necessary to derail her nomination to be the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the high court.

The appeals court judge, 55, avoided weighing in on any major issue that could come before her as a justice, instead using legal doctrine, carefully worded deflections and even humor to ward off efforts to pin her down.

Appearing more at ease on her third day in the witness chair, Sotomayor defused a tense exchange on gun rights by joking about shooting a GOP critic and charmed Democratic supporters with nostalgic praise for fictional attorney Perry Mason.

Republicans, frustrated in their attempts to undercut President Barack Obama's first high court choice, said they were still worried Sotomayor would bring bias and a political agenda to the bench.

"It's muddled, confusing, backtracking on issue after issue," complained Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel. "I frankly am a bit disappointed in the lack of clarity and consistency in her answers."

Her rulings — except for a much-debated reverse discrimination case — have not shed much light on her positions either, though she is considered unlikely to disturb the Supreme Court balance in replacing generally liberal Justice David Souter.

Video   Specter: Sotomayor 'doing very well' July 15: Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., gives his take on Sonia Sotomayor's first two days of Supreme Court nomination hearings and Sen. Lindsay Graham's questioning of her temperament. Morning Joe

On abortion rights for example, Sotomayor has not ruled on any case that squarely confronts the issue. As an appeals court judge she dismissed a challenge to the so-called global gag rule on U.S. foreign aid, deciding against an abortion rights group. But in her opinion she used the phrases "anti-abortion" and "pro-choice," typically used by abortion rights supporters.

The hearings are expected to conclude Thursday with testimony from outside witnesses, and a vote by the full Senate to confirm Sotomayor is expected in early August. That would allow her to don the robes of a justice before a scheduled hearing on Sept. 9 on a case involving federal campaign finance law.

The cavernous hearing room on Capitol Hill was filled for a third straight day, and tourists waited in line outside for their few moments to witness history.

Among the audience members sat Frank Ricci, a white New Haven, Conn., firefighter whose reverse discrimination claim was rejected by Sotomayor's court panel. The Supreme Court overturned that ruling late last month, and Republicans plan to showcase Ricci on Thursday as part of their effort to portray her as a judge who has let her biases trump the law.

On Wednesday, Sotomayor declined repeatedly to respond to questions designed to elicit her personal and legal views about a woman's right to end a pregnancy, saying she couldn't address it in the abstract and wouldn't do so in any specific way since the issue is likely to come before the court.

The Supreme Court in 1992 "reaffirmed the core holding of Roe v. Wade that a woman has a constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy in certain cases," Sotomayor told Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., adding that the ruling said the court should consider whether any state regulation "has an undue burden on the woman's constitutional right."

But she refused to be drawn out by Coburn, a leading abortion-rights foe, on whether a late-term abortion would be appropriate, or whether technological advances that allow an early-term fetus to survive should have any bearing on the legal standard for ending a pregnancy.

"All I can say to you is what the court's done and the standard that the court has applied," Sotomayor said. "We don't make policy choices on the court; we look at the case before us."

Earlier, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked how the Obama administration could have known her position on the issue.

"I was asked no question by anyone including the president about my views on any specific legal issue," she said.

She was no more forthcoming on the issue when pressed by an abortion rights supporter, Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. Asked whether Roe was a kind of "super-duper precedent," she didn't respond directly.

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