Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor declined repeatedly at Senate confirmation hearings Wednesday to disclose her views on abortion rights and said President Barack Obama never asked her before he chose her for the bench. I'm sure he did :)"I can't answer ... because I can't look at it in the abstract," she told Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., as he sought to draw her out with questions about hypothetical cases, including one in which a woman wanted to abort a 38-week fetus with a birth defect.
Even if she knew more about the specifics of a case, she added, "I probably couldn't opine because I'm sure that situation might well arise before the court."
Coburn opposes abortion rights, but Sotomayor was no more forthcoming when questioned by a lawmaker on the other side of the issue.
"Would you think that Roe might be a super-duper precedent?" probed Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa, pointing out that the landmark 1973 case that established the right to an abortion has been upheld in 38 cases. She did not answer directly, saying instead it was a settled precedent, a phrase she first used on Tuesday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment