How to improve Supreme Court nomination hearings

By Jennifer J. Foster

I just had a brilliant idea.

I’m sitting here listening to the opening statements of the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. I’m trying to figure out how long it’s going to be before something substantive happens.

I’m afraid it’s going to be a while.

So then it hit me: One of the easiest, quickest things the Senate could do to improve these hearings would be to cap the opening statements of its windba—I mean, members at two minutes. Why do they need 10 minutes a piece? There’s only one reason: To grandstand.

Let’s be honest: Senators aren’t exactly the most humble people you’ll ever come across. They love the power that comes with being one of 100 men and women in the country charged with making law in the “upper chamber” and the role they play in advising and consenting on presidential nominees (especially the Supreme Court).

As for Supreme Court nominations, their role is every bit as critical as they want you to think. As Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Patrick Leahy said in his opening remarks, these 100 people must stand in for the 320 million of us—and there are even fewer stand-ins on the committee. So they must do their job, and do it thoroughly.

But by the time these confirmation hearings begin, they have had countless opportunities to interact with their constituents on the nominee. They have had private meetings with the nominee and have even reviewed voluminous materials about the nominee and the questionnaires he or she has completed.

And they have had the media’s ear on this issue for months.

Two minutes would be plenty of time for the senators to welcome the nominee and set the framework for that senator’s comments and later questions. There is no need for each senator to go on—and on and on—for 10 minutes. There are 19 members of the committee—the 10-minute allowance means that these senators are going to go on for more than THREE HOURS—the entire time of which we hear nothing, NOTHING from the nominee.

And isn’t that what these hearings are all about?

I think the two-minute time limit would encourage senators to make their comments their own—that is, if they have less time to speak for themselves, they will be less likely to use that ime to parrot partisan talking points.

If that rule was in effect today, we’d be hearing from Sonia Sotomayor right now, 34 minutes into the hearing, instead of hours later, or even the next day.

What do you think? Should we cap the opening statements of the senators on the Judiciary Committee?