Witness Testimony Begins

Courtesy of CQ Transcriptions

ACTING CHAIRMAN: Good afternoon, everyone. The ranking member has joined us, and the hearing will now come to order.

We have a considerable number of witnesses to get through today, so I would ask Ms. Askew and Ms. Boies and the witnesses who will follow them to please be scrupulous about keeping your oral statements to five minutes or under. Your full written statement will be put in the record, and senators will each have five minutes to ask questions of each panel.

Along with Ranking Member Sessions, I am very glad to welcome ABA witnesses Kim Askew and Mary Boies. Kim Askew is the chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, and Mary Boies the ABA Standing Committee's lead evaluator on its investigation into Judge Sotomayor's qualifications to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.

The ranking member and I both look forward to their testimony. And if I could ask them please to stand and be sworn, we will begin.

Do you affirm that the testimony you are about to bring before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Please be seated. You may proceed with your statements.

Check back for the most noteworthy excerpts in the hours ahead. The full list of witnesses lives here.