Live Blogging the Sotomayor Hearings, Day 2

The afternoon session has focused on property rights and a government’s authority to seize property for a public use or purpose, and now has moved onto Bush administration policies and law in the wake of Sept. 11.

Cameras in the Courts | 2:28 p.m.
It’s Senator Russ Feingold’s turn, and he compliments the judge’s answers and says how much he’s enjoying listening to her. In fact, he says, once she arrives at the Supreme Court, and is perhaps engaged in talks with the justices about whether to allow cameras, she’ll remember how wonderful this experience was.

“You were a very good lawyer, weren’t you, senator?” she quips.

Ricci-Bashing | 2:24 p.m. People for the American Way, a left-leaning group cited by Senator Hatch as possibly responsible for smearing Mr. Ricci, the New Haven firefighter, has responded to the senator. Marge Baker, an executive vice president, issued this statement: “With all due respect to Senator Hatch, he’s attacking a straw man. It is not a smear to point out than an individual used the law to protect his interests. It’s time to get past this distraction and have an honest discussion about the importance of anti-discrimination laws for all people.”

First Protest of the Day | 2:17 p.m. In the middle of the senator’s questions, a man stands up in the back of the room and loudly calls the judge a “baby-killer.” Most if not all of the protesters have been against abortion. Mr. Leahy admonishes the room to adhere to the decorum befitting a Supreme Court confirmation hearing; says he won’t tolerate any disruptions.

Property Ownership | 2:03 p.m. Senator Chuck Grassley has reverted to questions about the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo, which allowed a government to take a private owner’s property for business development. Mr. Grassley (and in fact many others) consider that to be an expansion of what’s allowed under the Constitution.

Judge Sotomayor mentions a case she ruled on, regarding a resident and a village in New York. She said she took the opposite view, siding with the property owner who she believed hadn’t been granted enough avenues for recourse.

She won’t take Mr. Grassley’s bait, as he tries through several questions to get at her opinions on whether the Supreme Court justices “overstepped.” But, she acknowledges, “I know there are many litigants who have expressed that view, in fact there have been many state legislatures that have passed state legislation not permitting governments to taking (of property) in the situation that the Supreme Court permitted in Kelo.”

(Adam Liptak discussed the Kelo case in an article for the Week in Review. And Linda Greenhouse, our former Supreme Court correspondent, on the original decision.)

We’re Back | 2:01 p.m. Judge Sotomayor has just returned to the hearing room. But many of the senators have yet to come back. Senator Patrick Leahy is preparing to take his seat as chairman, and given that he warned everyone he wanted to start promptly at 2 p.m, he’s just taken a look at his watch.

Lunch Break | 12:35 p.m. We’re now recessed until 2 p.m., when Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, will take up the questioning.

Source: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/live-blogging-the-sotomayor-hearings-day-2/?hp