Replies

THESE ARE THE RELEVANT EXCERPTS FROM HER TESTIMONY WITH GRAHAM (SHE HAD PLENTY OF ROOM TO PROPERLY DIVULGE HER WORK ON THE LITIGATION COMMITTEE... SHE ONLY TALKED ABOUT PRESENTING A MEMO TO THE BOARD WITHOUT EVER STATING TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE THAT SHE WAS ON THE LITIGATION COMMITTEE):

JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: I wasn’t aware of what was said in those briefs. Perhaps it might be helpful if I explain what the function of a board member is and what the function of the staff would be in an organization like the fund.
SEN. GRAHAM: Okay.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: In a small organization, as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund was back then, it wasn’t the size of other legal defense funds, like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund —
SEN. GRAHAM: Right.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: — or the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, which are organizations that undertook very similar work to PRLDEF. In an organization like PRLDEF, a board member’s main responsibility is to fundraise. And I’m sure that a review of the board meetings would show that that’s what we spent most of our time on. To the extent that we looked at the organization’s legal work, it was to ensure that it was consistent with the broad mission statement of the fund.

. . .

JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: I wasn’t and I didn’t, as a board member, review those briefs. Our lawyers were charged with –

. . .

SEN. GRAHAM: And quite frankly, that’s — you know, lawyers are lawyers, and people who have causes that they believe in have every right to pursue those causes.
And the fund, when you look — you may have been a board member, but I’m here to tell you that it filed briefs constantly for the idea that taxpayer-funded abortion was necessary, and to deny it would be a form of slavery; challenged parental consent as being cruel.

. . .

SEN. GRAHAM: As an advocate, did you challenge the death penalty as being an inappropriate punishment because of the effect it has on race?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: I never litigated a death penalty case personally. The —
SEN. GRAHAM: Did you ever sign a memorandum saying that?
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: I signed a memorandum for the board to take under consideration what position on behalf of the Latino community the fund should take on New York state reinstating the death penalty in the state. It’s hard to remember, because so much time has passed in the 30 years —

She was asked if she was aware of the positions taken in certain briefs filed by the Fund. She testified that (i) she was not aware of those positions and (ii) she did not read the briefs. In support of that testimony she said that she was a Board member and that the principal role of a Board member was to raise money for the fund. The Judiciary Committee needs to learn more about the role of the Board’s litigation committee and specifically her role on the Committee. They should take testimony from others on those topics. If it turns out that, in her capacity as a member of the litigation committee, she was generally aware of the legal positions being taken by the Fund OR that she did review the briefs that were filed, her answers were both false and evasive and she should not be confirmed.