Leahy, Sessions Press PRLDEF For Sotomayor-Requested Documents
WASHINGTON (Thursday, June 18, 2009) – Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
today sent a letter to LatinoJustice PRLDEF (Puerto Rican Legal Defense
and Education Fund), asking that the organization expedite Judge Sonia
Sotomayor’s request for documents related to her membership in the
organization. Sotomayor has been nominated to be an Associate
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In response to the Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan questionnaire,
Sotomayor stated that she was a member of PRLDEF from 1980 until 1992,
serving at various times in different leadership capacities, and
provided the Committee as requested with documents in her possession
related to her time at PRLDEF. In a June 15 letter to the
Committee, Sotomayor wrote that in addition to her response to the
questionnaire, she had requested “searches of the files maintained by
PRLDEF” to locate additional documents not in her possession.
In the letter sent Thursday, Leahy and Sessions urged the President and
General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Cesar Perales, to expedite the
request.
“In order to assist the Committee in conducting a thorough and timely
review of Judge Sotomayor’s record, we request that PRLDEF expedite its
review and supplement the documents Judge Sotomayor has already provided
to the Committee,” Leahy and Sessions wrote.
Information requested by Leahy and Sessions include documents written
by, edited by, or prepared under Sotomayor’s supervision from 1980 to
1992 relating to matters of public policy, documents related to
litigation in which PRLDEF was involved during the time period Judge
Sotomayor was Chairperson of the Litigation Committee , and documents
related to public policy matters from the time Judge Sotomayor served on
the Board of Directors, the Litigation and Education Committees, and the
Ad Hoc Committee on Reorganization and Long-Range Planning.
Hearings to consider Sotomayor’s nomination are scheduled to begin on
July 13. The full text of the letter follows. A PDF is
available online.
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June 18, 2009
Mr. Cesar A. Perales
President and General Counsel
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
99 Hudson Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10013
Dear Mr. Perales:
We write as the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee to follow up on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s request for you to
provide documents related to her membership in the Puerto Rican Legal
Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF). As you know, on May 26, 2009,
the President designated Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee for the
Supreme Court of the United States. In order to assist the
Committee in conducting a thorough and timely review of Judge
Sotomayor’s record, we request that PRLDEF expedite its review and
supplement the documents Judge Sotomayor has already provided to the
Committee.
According to her response to the Committee’s questionnaire, Judge
Sotomayor was a member of PRLDEF from 1980 until her resignation in
1992, serving at various points in time as Vice President of PRLDEF’s
Board of Directors, and as Chairperson of the Litigation and Education
Committees and from 1984-1985 as Special Vice-Chairperson, in 1986 as
Second Vice-Chairperson, and from 1987-1988 as First Vice-Chairperson.
One document produced by Judge Sotomayor indicates she also served as a
member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Reorganization and Long-Range
Planning.
In her June 15, 2009 letter to the Committee, Judge Sotomayor stated:
“In responding to the Committee Questionnaire, I thoroughly reviewed my
files to provide all responsive documents in my possession.
I also requested searches of the files maintained by PRLDEF, which
required accessing the organization’s archives and therefore required
more time. As a result of that search, I have received several
additional documents related to my work for PRLDEF, which are attached.”
We are writing to ask you to expedite your response to Judge Sotomayor’s
request, and to ensure that your response includes the following
documents from the time period from January 1, 1980 to December 31,
1992:
A.
All documents relating in whole or part
to matters of public policy, including but not limited to, reports,
memoranda, or policy statements, including any drafts of such documents,
written by, edited by, or prepared under the supervision of Judge
Sotomayor, including those related to policy initiatives undertaken or
contemplated by PRLDEF;
B.
All documents, including any drafts of
such documents, related to any litigation in which the PRLDEF was a
party, filed an amicus brief, or was otherwise involved, written by,
edited by, or prepared under the supervision of Judge Sotomayor,
including but not limited to all documents relating in whole or part to
matters of public policy prepared during the time period Judge Sotomayor
was Chairperson of the Litigation Committee;
C.
All documents relating in whole or part
to matters of public policy, including but not limited to, reports,
memoranda, or policy statements, including any drafts of such documents,
related to the Board of Directors, the Litigation and Education
Committees, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Reorganization and Long-Range
Planning produced during the period she served on each entity,
respectively. These documents include but are not limited to,
meeting minutes, board books and summaries from the time she served on
each entity.
We request that you deliver four (4) copies of these documents to the
Judiciary Committee as soon as possible so that the Committee can
prepare for Judge Sotomayor’s July 13 confirmation hearing. The
Committee will reimburse you with any costs for searching archives and
copying documents.
Sincerely,
PATRICK LEAHY
JEFF SESSIONS
Chairman
Ranking Member
cc: The Honorable Sonia
Sotomayor
Office of the Counsel of the President
The White House
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