Leahy, Sessions Announce Witness List For Sotomayor Hearing
WASHINGTON (Thursday, July 9, 2009) – Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
Thursday announced the witness list for the confirmation hearing for
Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme
Court.
The confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin on
July 13 at 10:00 a.m. The lists of witnesses invited by the
Majority and Minority of the Judiciary Committee follow. A panel
of witnesses from the American Bar Association will also testify.
For more information about the Supreme Court, the Sotomayor nomination,
and hearing details, visit the
Senate Judiciary
Committee website.
American Bar Association Witnesses
Kim Askew,
Chair of Standing Committee
Mary Boies, Primary Reviewer
Majority Witnesses
(Biographies Below)
Michael Bloomberg,
Mayor, City of New York
Chuck Canterbury, National President, Fraternal Order of
Police
David Cone, former Major League Baseball pitcher
JoAnne A. Epps, Dean, Temple University Beasley School of
Law, on behalf of the National Association of Women Lawyers
Louis Freeh, former Director, Federal Bureau of
Investigation
Michael J. Garcia, former U.S. Attorney, Southern District
of New York
Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights
Patricia Hynes, President, New York City Bar Association
Dustin McDaniel, Attorney General, State of Arkansas
Robert Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York County, New
York
Ramona Romero, National President, Hispanic National Bar
Association
Congressman Jose E. Serrano, New York 16th
District
Theodore M. Shaw, Professor, Columbia Law School
Kate Stith, Lafayette S. Foster Professor of Law, Yale Law
School
Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Chair of the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus.
Minority Witnesses
Linda Chavez,
President, Center for Equal Opportunity
Sandy Froman, Esq., Former President, National Rifle
Association of America
Dr. Stephen Halbrook, Attorney
Tim Jeffries, Founder, P7 Enterprises
Peter Kirsanow, Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights
David Kopel, Esq., Independence Institute
John McGinnis, Professor, Northwestern University School
of Law
Neomi Rao, Professor, George Mason University School of
Law
Frank Ricci, Director of Fire Services, ConnectiCOSH
(Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health)
David Rivkin, Esq., Partner, Baker Hostetler
Nick Rosenkranz, Professor, Georgetown University School
of Law
Ilya Somin, Professor, George Mason University School of
Law
Lieutenant Ben Vargas, New Haven Fire Department
Dr. Charmaine Yoest, Americans United for Life
A memorandum
providing guidance for the hearings will be available Thursday
afternoon. Guidelines for
media and
public attendance at the hearings are available online.
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Biographies For Majority Witnesses At Sotomayor Hearing
Biographies for
witnesses invited to testify by the Senate Judiciary Committee Majority
follow.
Michael Bloomberg.
Mr. Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City. First elected in
2001, he is now in his third term as mayor. He began his career
with Salomon Brothers, an investment bank in New York City where he
worked for 15 years. In 1981, he founded Bloomberg LP. Today, more
than 250,000 people subscribe to its financial news and information
service. Headquartered in New York City, the company now has employees
in more than 100 cities. Mayor Bloomberg is a graduate of Johns
Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.
Chuck Canterbury.
Mr. Canterbury is the National President of the Fraternal Order of
Police, one of the Nation’s largest and most prominent voices for law
enforcement officers. Mr. Canterbury has served in numerous
capacities in the organization, including National Vice President and
National Second Vice President. Mr. Canterbury has 25 years of
experience in law enforcement as a police officer in Horry County, South
Carolina. He was also appointed by President George W. Bush to
serve on the Medal of Valor Board, and he serves on the Homeland
Security Council.
David Cone.
Mr. Cone is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. Fifteen years ago,
in August 1994, a 232-day baseball strike began, leading to the
cancellation of the 1994 World Series, which was the first since 1904.
During the strike, Mr. Cone became
one of the players union's most active and visible members, testifying
before Congress in January of 1995 against baseball's Antitrust
Exemption.
JoAnne A. Epps.
Ms. Epps is the Dean at the Temple University Beasley School of
Law. She has been a frequent speaker on
Evidence and Advocacy, both domestically and internationally. Dean
Epps is a member of the American Law Institute, and is active in
professional organizations. She is an officer of the American Bar
Association Section of Litigation and recently completed a term as a
member of the ABA Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education
(2004-2007). Before joining the Temple faculty in 1985, she was a Deputy
City Attorney for the City of Los Angeles (1976-1980) and an Assistant
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1980-1985). Her
primary teaching areas include Criminal Procedure, Evidence and Trial
Advocacy. She will testify on behalf of the National Women Lawyers
Association.
Louis
Freeh.
Mr. Freeh served as the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation from 1993 to 2001. Mr. Freeh began his career as an
FBI Special Agent and later an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York. Subsequently, he held positions in the U.S.
Attorney’s Office as Chief of the Organized Crime Unit, Deputy U.S.
Attorney, and Associate U.S. Attorney. In July 1991, former
President George H.W. Bush appointed Mr. Freeh to be U.S. District Court
Judge for the Southern District of New York. While serving as a district
court judge, he was nominated to be the Director of the FBI by President
Clinton. After leaving the FBI in 2001, he moved into the private
sector and in 2007, he founded the Freeh Group International and its
affiliated law firm, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan LLP, where he serves as
Senior Managing Partner. He is a graduate of Rutgers College and
Rutgers Law School in 1974 and later received his LL.M. degree from New
York University Law School.
Michael J.
Garcia.
Mr. Garcia served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New
York from 2005 to 2008. As U.S. Attorney, he supervised more than
230 federal prosecutors and directed the investigation of some of the
world’s most high-profile cases involving securities fraud, racketeering
and counterfeiting. These investigations included whether the
multitrillion-dollar credit-default swap market was illegally
manipulated. Earlier this year, Mr. Garcia joined the law firm of
Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in its New York office. He is a
graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, the College
of William and Mary and Albany Law School.
Wade Henderson. Mr. Henderson is the
president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and
counselor to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund.
The Leadership Conference is the nation’s premier civil and human rights
coalition. Mr. Henderson is also the Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Professor of
Public Interest Law at the David A. Clarke School of Law, University of
the District of Columbia. Prior to his role with the Leadership
Conference, Mr. Henderson was the Washington Bureau director of the
NAACP. In that capacity, he directed the government affairs and
national legislative program of the NAACP. Mr. Henderson is a
graduate of Howard University and the Rutgers University School of Law.
Patricia
Hynes.
Ms. Hynes is the President of the City Bar of New York. The New
York City Bar Association, founded in 1870 and with a current membership
of 23,000, is the oldest and largest Bar Association in New York.
The City Bar is dedicated to maintaining the high ethical standards of
the profession, promoting reform of the law, and providing service to
the profession and the public. Ms. Hynes is also Senior Counsel at
Allen & Overy LLP. She is a graduate of Queens College, University
of the City of New York and Fordham University School of Law.
Dustin McDaniel.
Mr. McDaniel is the Attorney General of Arkansas. He took office
in January 2007, and he is the youngest Attorney General in the nation.
He is the Chair of the southern region for the National Association of
Attorneys General; Co-Chair of the Democratic Association of Attorneys
General; and has been awarded an Aspen-Rodel Fellowship in Public
Leadership. Prior to becoming Attorney General, Mr. McDaniel
served as a uniformed patrol officer in his hometown of Jonesboro,
Arkansas. He was also a Democratic Member of the Arkansas House of
Representatives, serving as the Chairman of the Joint Select Committee
on Health Insurance and Prescription Drugs and as a Member of the House
Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee. He is a graduate of
the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Bowen School of Law.
Robert
Morgenthau.
Mr. Morgenthau has served as the District Attorney for New York County,
New York—the “Manhattan District Attorney”—since 1975. Earlier
this year, after a long and storied career, Mr. Morgenthau announced
that he would not seek a tenth term. A veteran of World War II, he
graduated from Amherst College and Yale Law School.
Ramona Romero. Ms. Romero is the National
President of the Hispanic National Bar Association. The Hispanic
National Bar Association (HNBA) is an incorporated, not-for-profit,
national membership organization that represents the interests of the
more than 100,000 Hispanic attorneys, judges, law professors, legal
assistants, and law students in the U.S. and its territories. Since its
founding in 1971, the HNBA has acted as a force for positive change
within the legal profession. It does so by encouraging Latino students
to choose a career in the law and by promoting their advancement within
the profession once they graduate and start practicing. Ms. Romero
is also Corporate Counsel, Logistics and Energy at DuPont. She is
a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University and Harvard Law
School.
Congressman José
E. Serrano.
U.S. Representative
José E. Serrano represents the Sixteenth Congressional District of New
York in the Bronx . He served on the House Appropriations Committee and
is also Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General
Government . Congressman Serrano is also Senior Whip for the Majority
Whip operation and an active member of the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus; he served as Chair of the Caucus from 1993-94. He is now the
most senior Member of Congress of Puerto Rican descent.
Theodore M. Shaw.
Mr. Shaw is a Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School.
He is the former Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund, Inc. (LDF). Founded by Thurgood Marshall in 1940,
LDF is the nation's premier civil rights law firm. On May 1, 2004,
Mr. Shaw became the fifth person to lead the organization in its 65-year
history. He began his legal career in the Civil Rights Division of
the U.S. Department of Justice. Joining LDF in 1982, Mr. Shaw
directed LDF's education docket and litigated school desegregation,
economic justice, capital punishment, and other civil rights cases
throughout the country. In 1990, he left LDF to join the faculty
of the University of Michigan Law School, where he taught constitutional
law, civil procedure, and civil rights. In 1993, he rejoined LDF
as Associate Director-Counsel. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University
and the Columbia University School of Law.
Kate
Stith.
Ms. Stith is the Lafayette S. Foster Professor of Law at Yale Law
School, where she teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law,
criminal procedure, and constitutional law. Prior to joining the faculty
at Yale, Professor Stith was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, where she prosecuted white-collar and organized
crime cases. Her book on the federal sentencing guidelines, “Fear
of Judging” (with J.A. Cabranes), was awarded a Certificate of Merit by
the ABA in 1999. A graduate of Dartmouth College, the Kennedy School of
Government, and Harvard Law School, she clerked for Judge Carl McGowan
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and for
Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White.
Congresswoman Nydia
Velázquez.
Congresswoman Velázquez is the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus. Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez is currently serving her
ninth term as Representative for New York’s 12th Congressional District.
She is the Chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Chair of the
House Small Business Committee and a senior member of the Financial
Service Committee. In 1992, she was the first Puerto Rican woman elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives. Congresswoman Velázquez was born
in Yabucoa, and started school early, skipped several grades, and became
the first person in her family to receive a college diploma. At the age
of 16, she entered the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. She
graduated magna cum laude in 1974 with a degree in political science.
After earning a master’s degree on scholarship from N.Y.U., Velázquez
taught Puerto Rican studies at CUNY’s Hunter College in 1981.
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