Hoping criminal justice issues get attention in upcoming SCOTUS confirmation hearing

The National Law Journal has this new piece, headlined "A dozen themes frame Sotomayor hearing," that should help whet appetites for the upcoming Senate confirmation hearing for Judge Sotomayor's elevation to the Supreme Court.  Disappointingly, though not surprisingly, the piece does not mention either Sotomayor's past as a state prosecutor or the current importance (and flux) of huge areas of criminal law jurisprudence as a theme to watch.

It is notable (and probably worthy of some extended analysis) that members of Congress seem so eager to make much of crime and punishment issues in some settings, but then often seem eager to completely ignore these issue in modern confirmation battles.  Of course, the obviously explanation is political: bringing up issues during confirmation hearing concerning, say, Blakely and Crawford Sixth Amendment jurisprudence or Booker and the future of federal sentencing does not score any obvious political points with any obvious constituencies. 

I can and will continue to hope that at least a few Senators might look past short-term political concerns and consider asking questions that might prompt Sotomayor to engage publicly with criminal justice issues that are likely to be of critical importance for many SCOTUS terms to come.  As detailed in some prior posts below, these issues extend beyond the obvious topics of the death penalty and mandatory minimums to "brave new world" topics like GPS tracking and other technocorrections.

Some recent and older posts about Judge Sotomayor and SCOTUS sentencing topics:

• Will Judge Sotomayor make SCOTUS less friendly to criminal defendants?
• Some very early, very brief sentencing reflections on Judge Sotomayor
• A quick thought on Judge Sotomayor's sentencing work in Cavera
• Noting early unpublished sentencing opinions from Judge Sotomayor
• Notable background parallels between Judge Sotomayor and Justice Alito
• Any predictions on how a Justice Sotomayor would approach capital cases?
• Examining Judge Sotomayor's years as a New York state prosecutor 
• Examining Judge Sotomayor's criminal justice record

• An op-ed call for a district judge to become a Justice
• Is career diversity a bad thing in the highest court in the land?
• Reflections on the politics of SCOTUS and personhood of its members
• Does SCOTUS need a trial judge?
• Brave New Justice and sentencing issues
• Roberts, the cert pool, and sentencing jurisprudence
• Assailing the lack of criminal justice questions at the Roberts hearing
• Can Roberts bring consensus to SCOTUS sentencing jurisprudence?