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Opinion: Sotomayor hearings: Durbin derides conservative jurists, refers to strip search case

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As expected, “empathy” has been invoked again and again in today’s confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.

Republicans repeatedly said it can color a judge’s vision and distort the law. Democrats have countered that empathy and life experience make for a more informed judge. The latest to sound that theme was the last senator to speak before a lunch break, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

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Durbin said that some decisions by conservatives on the high court reflect “a triumph of ideology over common sense.” This led Durbin to bring up the strip-search case.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the strip search of a 13-year-old girl who was suspected of hiding pain-relief pills was out of bounds. In an 8-1 decision, the court called this search degrading, unreasonable and unconstitutional.

In 2003, Savana Redding was an eighth grader in the small town of Safford, Ariz. That fall, one boy had gotten violently ill from taking pills at school. When another girl was found with several white pills in a folder, she told Vice Principal Kerry Wilson she got them from Savana. The pills were prescription-strength ibuprofen, equivalent to two Advil tablets.

Savana said she knew nothing of the pills. Her backpack was searched. When no pills were found, Wilson sent her to the nurse’s office, where she was told to remove her outer clothes and to pull out her bra and underwear to check for hidden pills.

Although the court supported the girl, Durbin said the conservative justices showed “a stunning lack of empathy to the eighth-grade victim.”

After Durbin spoke, the panel broke for lunch and will resume at 2 p.m. EDT.

-- Steve Padilla

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Savana Redding leaves the U.S Supreme Court after her case was heard on April 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. The high court heard the case of the honor student that was strip searched in 2003 while she was in the eighth grade by school officials looking for prescription-strength ibuprofen pills.

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