Grassley, Sessions to vote no on Sotomayor

WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- Senate Judiciary Committee member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would vote against the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday.

"I had hoped to be able to vote for Judge Sotomayor to be the next justice on the Supreme Court, but after a thorough review of the hearing record and her cases, speeches and writings, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot support Judge Sotomayor's nomination," Grassley said in a statement on his Web site. "I question if Judge Sotomayor will be able to set aside personal biases and prejudices to decide cases in an impartial manner and in accordance with the Constitution.

The committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the nomination of Sotomayor, which then would go to the full Senate for consideration. If confirmed by the full Senate, she would be the first Hispanic and third woman on the bench,

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., announced in a commentary published Monday in USA Today that he, too, would vote against Sotomayor's nomination.

"I don't believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism," Sessions wrote in the op-ed piece. "She has evoked its mantra too often."

USA Today in its Monday publication endorsed Sotomayor's nomination, saying, "there is no pattern of decisions in her 17-year judicial career to suggest that she has done anything but fairly apply the law."