TPMDC

Top Judiciary GOPer Signals Health Care Could Be Next Court Nominee’s Litmus Test

The U.S. Supreme Court building and President Barack Obama

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee tasked with hearings for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, today offered a strong hint about the direction Republicans may take toward the president’s choice.

Sessions (R-AL) used his statement to criticize Obama’s “empathy” standard for selecting Sonia Sotomayor last year for the high court.

But one sentence especially stood out: “There is much at stake, as the court’s interpretation of the Constitution in the coming years could significantly affect the implementation of domestic polices approved by the president and Congress over the past year.”

As nearly 20 states are suing the federal government over health care, Sessions seems to be laying down a marker on big legislation passed under Obama since he took office in January 2009. Sessions’ home state of Alabama is among those which joined a lawsuit challenging the Constitutionality of health care reform.

Barack Obama, Health care lawsuits, Jeff Sessions, Judicial nominees, Senate Judiciary Committee, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court, Supreme Court vacancy, U.S. Supreme Court, White House

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Senior Associate Editor

Paul Werdel

Associate Editor

Sara Libby

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Carl Franzen

Sahil Kapur

Eric Kleefeld

Eric Lach

Nick Martin

Evan McMorris-Santoro

Ryan J. Reilly

Benjy Sarlin

Front Page Editor

David Taintor

Poll Editor

Kyle Leighton

News Writer

Pema Levy

Video Editor

Michael Lester

Polling Fellow

Tom Kludt

Video Fellow

Clayton Ashley

Publishing Fellow

Christopher O’Driscoll

Research Interns

Michael Brooks

Publishing Intern

Miles Read

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Mary Cadwallader

Bob Edmunds

Bruce Ellerstein

Waldo Tibbetts

Manager, Ad Operations and Sales Support

Versha Sharma

Deputy Publisher

Callie Schweitzer

Director of Technology

Eric Buth

Designer/Developer

Ni Mu

Matthew Wozniak

Tech Fellow

Dennis Cahillane