Senate Confirms Sotomayor; Swearing-In at Supreme Court on Saturday

"The Senate has confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in a historic vote that will make her the nation's first Hispanic justice and the third woman appointed to the Court."  Here's more from The National Law Journal:

Sotomayor, born in New York City to parents who moved there from Puerto Rico, won over nine Republican senators to go with the 59 members of the Democratic caucus who were present. The final margin of 68-31 was larger than the 58-42 vote three years ago for Justice Samuel Alito Jr., but it was still a smaller margin than other justices have received. . . .

The only senator who did not vote was cancer-stricken Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a central figure in past confirmation fights.

C-SPAN has the confirmation vote tally.  Over at SCTOUSblog, you can compare that vote with the Senate vote on each of the currently seated Supreme Court Justices and retired Justice David H. Souter. 

Tony Mauro notes that Sotomayor will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Supreme Court.  "A White House source says President Barack Obama wanted the oath-taking to occur at the Supreme Court 'as a symbol of the Court's independence,' " he says.  Here's more from Mauro:

 She'll be given the constitutional oath of office in a private ceremony in the justices' conference room, followed by the judicial oath in the East Conference Room  before a gathering of Sotomayor's friends and family. A formal investiture ceremony will take place on Sept. 8 with a special sitting of the Court.

Holding the ceremony at the Court rather than the White House is a significant break from recent practice, and represents something of a concession to the wishes of justices who have complained that the oath-taking has become an inappropriately political event.

Several justices -- most recently, Justice John Paul Stevens -- have objected to White House ceremonies for new justices, fearing that such events send the message that the justice is beholden to the appointing president or is a political trophy for the president.  . . .

The issue arose within the Court in 1991 when Clarence Thomas was to be sworn in at the White House, according to correspondence contained in the late Justice Thurgood Marshall’s papers at the Library of Congress. “In my opinion a decision on where a Supreme Court investiture should be held should not be made in the executive branch,” Stevens wrote in a note to colleagues at the time. “We should do whatever we can to terminate the practice.”

Mauro reports that there will be a White House reception for Sotomayor next week.

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