BLOGROLL

During the confirmation hearings of Judge Sotomayor this week, Senator Hatch asked several questions submitted by Utahns:

Instead of just asking his own questions of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. Orrin Hatch asked her some on Thursday that Utahns suggested.

"I invited constituents in Utah to send their questions, and got an overwhelming response," he said. But he asked only two of them. One was about whether the role of judges is to correct social injustice, and the other was whether the Constitution is more important than more recent court opinions.

Hatch said one Utahn asked "whether you see the courts, especially the Supreme Court, as an institution to resolving perceived social injustices, inequities and disadvantages?" (Hatch added, "I thought it was an interesting question.")

"No, that's not the role of the courts," Sotomayor said.

"The role of the courts is to interpret the law as Congress writes it," she said, adding that may incidentally have the outcome of fixing social injustice. "But it's not the role of the judge to create that outcome. It's to interpret what Congress is doing, and do what Congress wants."

Hatch said, "Another constituent asked, 'Which is more important or deserves more weight: the Constitution as it was originally intended, or newer legal precedent?'" (Hatch added, "That's a good question.") ...

Hatch added that many of the questions Utahns submitted were about gun rights, but such questions had already been asked (without Sotomayor revealing much about her views).

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