Jeff Sessions

After repeated questioning on her "wise Latina" quotation by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), left, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor bends in her defense of her words, that she was trying to inspire young Latinos that their life experiences would......

The question was never whether, but always how, ethnicity would come up. The answer is that the emotional implications of ethnicity have threaded their way through the confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The first African-American president,...

by James Oliphant The Judiciary Committee has cranked up the hearing again after a lunch break.(I had a cobb salad.) Because of the 12-7 imbalance on the committee, the Republicans are done speaking for the moment. Right now, Delaware's senator,......

Sonia Sotomayor continues her testimony Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Win McNamee/Getty Images) by James Oliphant We're back at Hart 216 for the third day of the Sotomayor Supreme Court hearings. Stay here for real time analysis during....

by James Oliphant Much of the speculation surrounding the Sotomayor hearings has centered on the role that will be played by Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. This is Sessions' first confirmation hearing of any kind......

Which was the most fevered lunge for self-promotion? 1. Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) calling the late pop star Michael Jackson a pedophile, a pervert and a lowlife. 2. Rev. Al Sharpton claiming a ???disrespectful double standard??? in media coverage of.......

by James Oliphant It's 10 a.m. and the hearing room in the Hart building is packed to the rafters. Nearly all the seats are filled by media. Reports of the near extinction of the Washington press corps seem to be......

(AP/Gerald Hebert) by James Oliphant We are here again in Hart 216 and Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has begun his first round of questions. Each member of the panel will question Judge Sotomayor in 30-minute periods. Stay with the......

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and top Republican Jeff Sessions at a taping of the CBS program Face the Nation Sunday. (AP/Karin Cooper) by James Oliphant As a political spectator sport, Supreme Court confirmation hearings can fall...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) began her 30 minutes of questions with a pointed defense of Sotomayor after the tough but fair questioning posed by GOP Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Orrin Hatch of Utah. Feinstein, like Sen. Patrick Leahy......

by David G. Savage and Mark Silva Judge Sonia Sotomayor, poised to become the first Hispanic member of the U.S. Supreme Court, won the support of the Senate Judiciary Committee today in a lopsided vote cast largely along party lines......

by James Oliphant and David E. Savage and updated at 5 pm. Sonia Sotomayor completed an unlikely and historic journey today, one that began with her birth in a Bronx, New York, housing project 55 years ago and culminated in......