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Also today- Sotomayor received endorsements from the National Sheriffs Association, Fraternal Order of Police, the National Chiefs of Police Association, the National Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, and a number of additional law enforcement organizations...
American Bar Association gives Sonia Sotomayor its highest rating
Sotomayor, whose Supreme Court confirmation hearing begins next week, is called 'well qualified' to serve as justice.
By James Oliphant and David G. Savage
1:47 PM PDT, July 7, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has received the stamp of approval from the American Bar Assn. less than a week before her confirmation hearing begins on Capitol Hill.
Sotomayor, a sitting federal appeals judge in New York, was deemed "well qualified" to serve as an associate justice on the high court by an ABA panel -- the highest rating the national attorney organization bestows.
The White House was notified by a letter today to counsel Gregory Craig. Sotomayor, 55, has been a federal judge since 1992 and has held a seat on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals for the last 11 years. The panel's decision was unanimous.
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Leahy's office today released a study conducted by the Democratic staff on the committee that suggests Sotomayor will be a centrist on crime issues. The survey looked at Sotomayor's criminal decisions on the 2nd Circuit, cases involving violent crime, illegal firearms, drugs, immigration crime and economic crime. The study concluded that Sotomayor affirmed convictions 92% of the time and reversed convictions 2% of the time. (The remaining cases were sent back to the trial court for further proceedings.)
And in the more than 400 criminal cases in which Sotomayor sat on panels with Republican-appointed judges, she agreed with all the Republican-appointed judges on the panel in 97% of the cases, the study said.
"Judge Sotomayor's criminal justice record proves that she is a moderate judge, whose decisions in criminal cases rarely differ from those of her colleagues on the federal bench," Leahy said at a news conference today attended by representatives of major law enforcement organizations that support Sotomayor, including the Fraternal Order of Police and the National Sheriffs Assn.