US Senate

Updated July 06, 2009

Sessions Curious if Sotomayor is Too Racially Biased to Judge

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FOXNews.com

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor advised the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which supported African-American firefighters in a job discrimination suit.

WASHINGTON -- A top Republican senator said Monday he wants to know whether Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is going to let race get in the way of her decisions as a justice.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions told FOX News he assumes Sotomayor understood and supported the stance of a group called the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund she advised in the 1980s that brought several race discrimination lawsuits for minorities who challenged jobs or promotions given to white employees.

"She participated in an organization or lawsuit, clearly participating actively as a supervisor of lawyers who actually litigated the cases, that is important," said Sessions, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee evaluating Sotomayor's nomination. 

"There is no evidence (Sotomayor) objected the positions they were taking. The question is really -- is this a philosophy that she has allowed to influence her decision making process on the bench?" he said.

Sotomayor would be the first Hispanic on the high court. Sessions said she must convince senators that her work for the fund doesn't taint her rulings. The confirmation hearing begins Monday at 10 a.m. ET

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