In a place where the time to argue some of the most important legal issues in the United States is pivotal yet limited, clocks throughout the Supreme Court building were not working on Monday — including the big one behind the bench that attorneys arguing their case and that spectators in the audience can see.

After the justices went on the bench at 10 a.m., Chief Justice John Roberts noted the problem and pointed out that attorneys are sometimes told not to look at the clock during oral arguments. “That is particularly important today,” he said.

Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said the problem stemmed from a “malfunction” with the court’s master clock. It apparently occurred when the clocks were to be turned back over the weekend for the end of daylight saving time.

Clocks in the building finally were fixed by the time the court heard arguments in a third case in the early afternoon.

Besides a broken clock, the arguments in the first case, a dispute over excessive fees charged to mutual fund investors, also produced another unusual development — the admission from Justice Stephen Breyer that he has laryngitis.

While asking a question, Breyer made a mistake and said the court was reversing — instead of reviewing — a federal judge’s opinion.

“I have laryngitis. I don’t speak accurately,” the hoarse-sounding Breyer told the lawyer as the courtroom erupted in laughter.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young

When Sonia Sotomayor got THE CALL, she says her heart started racing and she started crying.

President Barack Obama had called on her cell phone to say she was his first pick for the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I actually stood by my balcony doors, and I had … my cell phone in my right hand and I had my left hand over my chest trying to calm my beating heart,” Sotomayor, now a Supreme Court Justice, said in an interview with the cable television network C-SPAN.

On that evening in late May, Sotomayor said, “I caught my breath and started to cry and said, ‘Thank you, Mr. President’.” Her public admission of emotion was uncharacteristically candid for a sitting Supreme Court Justice.

And then she faced her first hurdle on the road to confirmation — getting to Washington.

A friend drove her from New York for Obama’s announcement the next day. The trip to Washington, which usually takes about four hours, “took us a little longer,” she said. “A torrential rain started on the drive and it knocked out our GPS, and so we got lost.”

Sotomayor had been writing her remarks during the drive and realized at one point they were in Virginia going away from Washington.

“So we pulled over on a road and I started calling up a friend and saying please get on the computer and figure out how we get back to where we have to go,” she said.

One of her law clerks gave her directions to the hotel. “It was a very eventful night,” Sotomayor added.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama and Sotomayor at White House reception in August)

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a longtime avid fan of the New York Yankees baseball team, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Saturday’s game against the Boston Red Sox.

A child of Puerto Rican parents, she grew up in the Bronx not far from where the Yankees play. Sotomayor, who was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate last month, is the first Hispanic justice on the high court.

The Yankees said ceremonial first pitches by Sotomayor and by Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli on Friday will take place during the team’s final regular season homestand to commemorate Hispanic heritage month.

“Having Justice Sotomayor, a South Bronx native, participate in our yearly Hispanic heritage month celebration is very exciting, as she is an inspiration to so many,” Manuel Garcia, Yankees Director of Latino Affairs, said. “We are proud to welcome her and President Martinelli to our new home.”

The Yankees, with the best record in baseball, are playing in a new stadium this season.

Sotomayor had a famous brush with Major League Baseball when she was a District Court judge with a decision that helped end the baseball strike of 1994-1995. “Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball,” Obama said in nominating her to the Supreme Court.

For Sotomayor’s official duties as a justice, the Supreme Court will next meet in a private conference next Tuesday and the new term officially begins on Oct. 5.

She is not the only baseball fan on the nine-member court. Justice Samuel Alito is known as a longtime supporter of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Photo credit: Reuters/Robert Sorbo (New York Yankees starting pitcher A.J. Burnett)

Justice Sonia Sotomayor received a warm welcome from her fellow Supreme Court colleagues on her first day on the bench in a public session attended by such luminaries as President Barack Obama and singer Ricky Martin.

Sotomayor, 55, is the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court and only the third woman. She wore the standard black judicial robe, with a white lace collar, known as a jabot, that was given to her by her colleague, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The investiture marked the third ceremony for Sotomayor since the Senate approved her nomination in early August.

The other eight Supreme Court members took the bench for the latest ceremony which lasted about six minutes and included her reciting the judicial oath.

It ended with Chief Justice John Roberts, on behalf of the entire court, extending to the former federal judge from New York a “warm welcome” and wishing her “a long and happy career in our common calling.”

Then, Roberts and Sotomayor walked down the front steps of the building and stood briefly on the plaza, directly across from the U.S. Capitol, for photographs. “Tell me when you have enough,” a smiling Sotomayor said to the photographers.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman confirmed that singer Ricky Martin was among the several hundred people who attended the ceremony, but had no other details on why the Puerto Rican-born pop singer had been invited. Sotomayor’s parents were from Puerto Rico.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Sotomayor in front of Supreme Court)

Nine months after losing the U.S. presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain is still taking center stage to voice disagreement with his former U.S. Senate colleague.

On Monday, McCain announced in a Senate speech that he would vote against Obama’s first U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, a federal judge for the past 17 years.

“She is an immensely qualified candidate,” McCain conceded.

But he added: “I do not believe that she shares my belief in judicial restraint.”

Echoing the concerns of a number of Senate Republican leaders, McCain complained she has ruled based not strictly by the law but also personal beliefs.

Despite a wall of Republican opposition, Sotomayor seems virtually certain to be confirmed this week by the Democratic-led Senate.

The American Bar Association gave Sotomayor its top rating, she has been supported by a number of law enforcement groups, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which often sides with Republicans, urged the Senate to confirm her, saying her record shows that she would be fair to business.

McCain said he monitored Sotomayor’s testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing last month. He said liked what he heard, but didn’t necessarily believe it.

“She clearly stated that ‘as a judge, I don’t make law.’ While I applaud this statement, it does not reflect her record as an appellate court judge.”

“As an appellate court judge, Judge Sotomayor has been overturned by the Supreme Court six times,” McCain said.

McCain lost to Obama after issuing countless warnings about the now popular president. He put out another warning on Monday — this one to fellow lawmakers.

“The American people will be watching this week when the Senate votes on Judge Sotomayor’s nomination. She is a judge who has forsworn judicial activism in her confirmation hearings, but who has a long record of it,” McCain said.

“If she uses her lifetime appointment on the bench as a perch to remake law in her own image of justice, I expect that Americans will hold us senators accountable,” McCain said.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (Obama and McCain talk at a recent meeting)

Reuters’ Andrew Quinn will be providing live updates on the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor, scheduled to start on Tuesday at 0930 ET. (Editor’s note: Reader comments appear in a smaller font)

Nearly 1,200 law professors from across the country signed up to support U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, and one early Republican critic says he may even vote for her.

With the stage set for her nationally broadcast Senate confirmation hearing next week, President Barack Obama’s first pick for the highest U.S. court seems headed toward confirmation as the first Hispanic U.S. justice.

Backers and opponents of Sotomayor have called her a liberal. Yet a group of law professors squarely in her corner say she is a moderate who goes by the book — the law book. 

Calling it an unprecedented show of support, the law professors sent a letter praising Sotomayor as a “brilliant, careful, fair-minded jurist” to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders.

Several of the professors told reporters that despite the belief of many backers and critics, they do not consider Sotomayor a liberal.

“There is a remarkable consensus here of how this ‘liberal tag’ … ought not be applied to her,” Daniel Richman of Columbia Law School said. ”She is very much a straight-forward, moderate judge.” 

The support by the law professors came a day after the American Bar Association gave Sotomayor its top rating and she won the endorsement of leading law enforcement groups.

Critics are also gearing up for the hearings. Conservatives, including Republican senators, stepped up their criticism, and a number of gun rights activists urged senators to oppose her nomination.

One early critic, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, said, “The only way she can get derailed is if she performs poorly next week,” according to The Miami Herald.  He said he remained undecided, but ”I honestly think I could vote for her.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas (Sotomayor at a meeting with a senator)

There’s a real school’s-out feeling around Washington today. Congress left town last week after the House voted for bill to curb climate change, and most lawmakers won’t be back until after the July 4 holiday weekend. The Supreme Court issues its last rulings of the term, with a full sheaf of decisions expected — but then the justices will be gone for the summer.

President Barack Obama’s hosting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the White House, with a joint appearance in the afternoon. In addition to a full plate of U.S.-Colombian issues, the two leaders could address last weekend’s military coup in Honduras. Obama has already called for peaceful resolution of “tensions and disputes” but he may have more to say.

Later in the day, Obama celebrates the accomplishments of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans at a White House reception. This community has criticized the president for what they see as foot-dragging on repealing the Defense of Marriage Act — which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and says states need not recognize gay marriages performed in another state — and the U.S. military’s Don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy.

On Capitol Hill, even though most members of Congress are back home, there’s one decision most will be interested in — a possible ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court on just who has won a hotly contested Senate seat: Republican Norm Coleman or Democrat Al Franken. If Franken is declared the winner, it would give Democrats a 60-vote majority, which means Republicans can’t delay legislation with a jaw-fest called a filibuster.

Outside Washington, questions still swirl around the death of Michael Jackson, with lawyers, doctors, relatives and others opining on morning television about the circumstances of the pop star’s demise, and the fate of his three children.

There was plenty of attention focused on an expected day of reckoning set for a New York City courtroom, too: the sentencing of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. Legal experts suggest he’ll get a virtual life term.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young. A cyclist rides past magnolias in bloom on Capitol Hill, March 3, 2009

Now that Congress is back from its week-long Memorial Day recess, it’s time for the U.S. top brass to hit the road. President Barack Obama heads to the Middle East today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Honduras, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in China and U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke promises a visit to Pakistan this week.

Closer to home, Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor starts making the rounds on Capitol Hill in advance of her confirmation hearings. Meantime, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal faces questions at his confirmation hearing today before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. McChrystal’s nominated to be the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

This might be an opportune time for travel. The Ipsos/Reuters poll indicates global consumer confidence is stabilizing, after dropping for 18 months.

Obama’s Mideast trip is in part a fulfillment of a campaign promise to deliver a speech to the Islamic world from a major Muslim capital early in his presidency. He’ll make the speech in Cairo on Thursday, where T-shirt vendors are ready with a version that reads “Obama: New Tutankhamon of the World.” His first stop in the region will be Saudi Arabia, where the discussion is expected to focus on oil prices.

Sometimes it’s not the distance traveled but what you say when you get there. That may be true for Dick Cheney, who last month emerged from his undisclosed location for a high-profile confrontation with Obama — they weren’t in the same room but Cheney started talking moments after Obama finished — over how to handle the threat of terrorism and its aftermath. The former vice president went to the National Press Club last night to offer support for gay marriage, regulated on a state-by-state basis. He has done this before, but doing it now puts him to the left of Obama, who favors civil unions for gay couples.

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Amr Dalsh (Souvenir shop shows the latest on June 1 in Cairo)

With Congress gone this week and President Barack Obama out of town for most of today, Washington turns to its two traditional inside-the-Beltway sporting events: handicapping a Supreme Court nominee’s chances of confirmation, and watching the nerve-wracking finals of the National Spelling Bee.

Sonia Sotomayor, picked by Obama on Tuesday, is already being praised in an ad by liberal groups and vilified as a racist by conservatives, including radio talk jock Rush Limbaugh, whom the White House has tried to style as the de facto head of the Republican Party. Obama himself stumped for his choice on a Western swing yesterday to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The president returns to Washington for a late afternoon meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Vice President Joe Biden was also out West yesterday too, giving a commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy. When wind blew down the teleprompter, Biden told the crowd: “What am I going to tell the president when I tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?”

U.S. initial jobless claims fell for the second week in a row, but the total number of people who get unemployment insurance benefits hit a new record.

A few blocks from the White House, school children are gathered with their families and fans in a hotel basement for the final rounds of the National Spelling Bee. Formerly a curiosity followed mostly by the students’ parents and friends, this event is now a big media deal. Semifinals are shown on ESPN, with the finals broadcast on ABC this evening. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, will be there.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Students from Missouri participate in the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC, May 27, 2009)