Senate Proceeding on Aug 6th, 2009 :: 3:52:55 to 4:00:00
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3:52:53 to 3:53:13( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: thank you and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator fro recognized. mr. kerry: i express my support to judge sotomayor to be associate justice of the united states supreme court. her career on the federal bench from the southern district court

3:52:55 to 4:00:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Kerry

3:53:14 to 3:53:34( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: in new york to the second circuit court of appeals to honors at princeton universy and yale's law school are now well-known to everybody in the country. but one of the things that received a small amount of attention in her confirmation hearings are the five years out of law school she spent as a

3:53:35 to 3:53:56( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: prosecutor in the office of legendary manhattan district attorney robert morgenthau, a reflection of her grit and her determination and courage that she took on this challenge at thatarticular time to serve as an assistant district attorney during one of the most crime-laden periods of new york's it is not often we get a chance

3:53:57 to 3:54:17( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: to elevate to the nation's highest court someone who has followed police into shooting galleries, someone who has tracked down witnesses on streets awash in drug-related violence, and someone who is personally taken on and shredded some of them on

3:54:18 to 3:54:39( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: cross-examination and who has personally moved in closing arguments. it isn't often we get a chance to confirm a supreme court nominee who doesn't come from what chairman leahy calls the "judicial monastery," but, rather, a chance to confirm someone with the personal experience, the perspective and

3:54:40 to 3:55:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: understanding of how the world works within our system of law as a practitioner and also having seen what it is like for those who try to enforce at the street level -- our police, our law enforcement officials -- and also has seen what happens to victims and families drawn into the system, unwillingly. judge sotomayor certainly weep

3:55:03 to 3:55:24( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: in a judicial was undertaking the task of putting criminals behind bars if new york. i believe that experience will prove of someone who can come there understanding what it means to work twelve hour-days as a prosecutor, struggling to put

3:55:25 to 3:55:49( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: together a case with reluctant witnesses, with police w a difficult time coming to the courthouse. obviously, with the experience in interpreting the fifth amendment and fourth amendment rights with respect to search and seizure and personal incrimination. one of her cases, to particular, stands out which is the 1983

3:55:53 to 3:56:14( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: so-called tar dan murde broke into remain pas, robbing residents and shooting them for no reason. it was judge sotomayor's first homicide case and alsoer first homicide conviction. the when to prison for 62 1/2 years. judge sotomayor said that the case affected her as no other,

3:56:15 to 3:56:37( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: that it underscored for her how crime destroys families and how prosecutors must be sensitive to the price that crime imposes on our society. i believe having been a prosecutor, those are lessons i learned, also, firsthand and didn't come automatically to the as much as i admire her work as

3:56:38 to 3:56:58( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: a new york prosecutor, that experience alone, obviously, doesn't qualify her for confirmation to the nomination of the c but i think it is an important experience and it says a lot about her approach to the law and what she is willing to fight for. there obviously are a few things

3:56:59 to 3:57:19( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: we do as important as confirming a supreme court justice especially now, with the court so evenly divided. so this is a pivot am moment for the court. and the d country will take for the next 30 years is being determined, now, by this debate. a vote nor a supreme court nominee is a vote for each of

3:57:20 to 3:57:42( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: our personal the constitution of the laws of the land and of what we think is important with respect to important. that is what this vote is: vote to protect basic rights and freedoms important to every american. i would say particularly

3:57:43 to 3:58:04( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: privacy, equality, and justice. consider, framplet legal,here workers were discriminated in matters of salary. and it took a new congress, and

3:58:05 to 3:58:26( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: a new president, to strike down the court's ruling in the continuing effort to ensure that all members -- women and men -- receive equal pay for equal work. i voted for a supreme court nominee in the past w clear to me they would protect those constitutional rights and freedoms and i have voted

3:58:27 to 3:58:48( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: against supreme court nominees when it was clear to me they would not protect those rights and so we have to ask ou ourselves: what direction will this nominee take the supreme court? will this nominee protect the civil right and liberties that we have fought so long and hard for? will the nominee support

3:58:49 to 3:59:10( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: congress' power to enact critical legislation, sometimes defining those rights? and will the nominee be an effective check on the executive branch? as a senator, each of us has a right -- not just a right but an obgation, a duty -- to protect the fundamental rights that are

3:59:11 to 3:59:31( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: part of our constitution. and i think part of that means we have to preserve the incredible progress that we have made with respect to civil rights realizing those sotomayor's extensive record and having rea important rulings, i've

3:59:32 to 3:59:52( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: concluded that she will do exactly that. she will will protect them. she is someone who understands that wt sets america apart from almost every is the right of any citizen no matter what level they're at in terms of their work, employment, or pay, income, status, that no matter where they come from, no

3:59:53 to 4:00:01( Edit History Discussion )

John Kerry: matter what the is, they have a right to h their day in court and and recently in this curntion