Scott Lemieux argues in support of the judicial confirmation hearings process:
Like the last four Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor is in virtually no danger of being rejected by the Senate. Given this simple truth, one would think that the judicial confirmation process would be relatively uncontroversial. And yet, anyone who follows the Sotomayor hearings and the surrounding commentary should expect to hear a great deal of complaints about the alleged deficiencies of the process.
Rather than joining in these (frequently bad faith) complaints, however, as someone who strongly supports Sotomayor’s confirmation, I’d like to suggest that the modern confirmation process works well enough. Further, attempting to “depoliticize” the process would be both impossible and undesirable.
