Opinion: Sotomayor hearings: She’s so not going there

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

You can tell that Sonia Sotomayor is more comfortable pushing back at Senate Republicans now, on her third day of testimony, than she was in the beginning. In her answers to Texas Sen. John Cornyn, she forcefully disputed the premises of many of his questions.

And she refused to be drawn into a trap that he lay concerning same-sex marriage. Cornyn asked her if the Supreme Court were to find a constitutional right to gay marriage, would it be ‘making’ or ‘interpreting’ the law.

Sotomayor wouldn’t touch it for a second. It was clear she believed that whatever she said, it would be taken to assume she had an agenda.

‘I also know that I think, as all America knows, this issue is being hotly debated on every level of our government,’ she said.

‘This is the type of situation where even the characterization of whatever one of the courts may do one way or the other suggests that I have prejudged that issue and I’ve come to that issue with my own personal views suggesting an outcome.’

-- James Oliphant

The Ticket goes inside politics several times a day. Click here for Twitter alerts. Or follow us @latimestot