Opinion: Sotomayor hearings: Kohl goes fishing, gets no bites

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It’s hard to tell from the last exchange whether Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) pursued his own agenda in questioning Judge Sonia Sotomayor or whether he simply attempted to give her an opportunity to show she won’t take the bait.

Kohl asked Sotomayor about a series of signature Supreme Court cases involving property rights, privacy and abortion, and each time asked her how she personally felt about the issue at hand. And each time Sotomayor deflected it, echoing soon-to-be Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s performance of four years ago.

How about the Kelo case, an eminent domain decision involving the takings clause of the 5th Amendment that conservatives have decried as an overreach?

‘Kelo is now a precedent of the court. I must follow it,’ Sotomayor said.

Kohl pressed her again to tell him her view of the holding of the case.

I don’t prejudge issues,’ Sotomayor said. ‘I come to every case with an open mind.’

The abortion-rights decision in Roe vs. Wade, reaffirmed by Casey vs. Planned Parenthood?

‘That is the precedent of the court and settled,’ she said.

Sotomayor, in fact, would not even divulge how she personally feels about televising Supreme Court oral arguments.

The back-and-forth between Kohl and Sotomayor didn’t make for good drama. But it did show that Sotomayor is staying on message.

-- James Oliphant

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Sara Weddington, attorney who argued the Row vs. Wade case. Seen here at benefit dinner on Wednesday, January 21, 1998 in Santa Ana at the Sutton Place Hotel. Kevin Casey / Los Angeles Times