Franken Gets Serious

By Kathleen Hunter | July 15, 2009 2:52 PM | | Comments (1)

Nothing like a Supreme Court confirmation hearing to start your Senate career with a bang.

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Al Franken (Getty Images/AFP/Karen Bleier)

Comedian-turned-Judiciary-Committee-member Al Franken, D-Minn., began his questioning of Sonia Sotomayor with a joke about Perry Mason but quickly got serious, asking the nominee about her definition of judicial activism as well as cases involving voting rights and age discrimination.

Franken at one point even displayed a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution, from which he read the 15th amendment out loud.

Franken, who just marked his ninth day as a senator today, said he had observed an "ominous increase" in judicial activism.

Franken came back to Perry Mason at the end of his questioning, gently ribbing Sotomayor for not being able to answer a question about a detail of the show.

"Didn't the White House prepare you?" he asked, prompting laughter from the audience.

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Categories: Supreme Court

Tags: Franken, Sotomayor

    Comments

  1. Minnesota must be really proud!

    Posted by: Field Marshal Author Profile Page | July 15, 2009 4:20 PM

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