Sotomayor hearings: Arlen Specter questions Supreme Court caseload

Former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter, who left the Republican party last year to become a Democrat, intimated that the Supreme Court should turn up its metabolism and plans to ask Sotomayor about the court’s caseload during the question-and-answer period. Though Sen. John Cornyn focused on the path the court had taken, Specter focused on the road NOT taken.

“I intend to ask … about cases that the Supreme Court decided not to decide,” said Specter. “The court, I would suggest, has time for more cases. Chief Justice Roberts noted, in his confirmation hearing, that the decision of more cases would be more helpful. In 1886, there were 1,396 cases on the docket, 451 decided. A century later, only 161 signed opinions. In 2007, only 67 signed opinions.”

And Specter uttered a charmingly tautological statement:

“I think it was wrong for America to wait until 1967 to have an African American justice, Thurgood Marshall, on the court, and to wait until 1981 to have the first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor. As as a diverse nation, diversity is very, very important.”

-- Robin Abcarian

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Photo: Sen. Arlen Specter, at today's hearing, notes that the high court's caseload has shrunk.  Credit: Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images