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A Fair and Balanced Look at the Newest Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee

By John Bringardner

The outcome of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearings are a foregone conclusion. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said as much on Monday, barring "a meltdown" from the "wise Latina" on the 2nd Circuit. So what's the point of watching a week's worth of senatorial grandstanding? Aside from the chance to catch occasional outburst from a protester or three in the gallery -- which, again, follow fairly predictable lines -- it's the opportunity to see the newest member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in action. Just a week into his tenure, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken finds himself one of only five non-lawyers on the committee, in his role as the "people's proxy," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He may not have a JD, but Franken's no legal naïf. The former "Saturday Night Live" star spent the past eight months in a legal battle for his Senate seat, a journey chronicled in this week's New Yorker by John Colapinto. So he's up to speed on election law, but it doesn't look like he'll quiz Sotomayor on one of the Court's most infamous recent opinions, which came up in his fight against Norm Coleman: The Election Contest of Coleman v....

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on July 15, 2009 (boomark / email).