Franken will grill Sotomayor on campaign finance

Sen.-elect Al Franken already knows what he’ll ask Judge Sonia Sotomayor about during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court that begin July 13: campaign finance.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he has saved Franken seats on four committees: Judiciary; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Aging; and Indian Affairs. Franken’s swearing-in next week will set him up for a hot seat the following Monday as the Judiciary Committee starts to weigh President Obama’s pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter.

Interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio this morning, Franken said he is concerned about the role of corporate money in political races and would quiz Sotomayor on constitutional barriers to public financing of campaigns.

He referenced the Supreme Court’s announcement Monday that it would re-hear a pending campaign-finance appeal by corporate funders of an attack-flick titled “Hillary: The Movie.” If Sotomayor is confirmed (and Franken said she will be), she could join the high court in time for its reconsideration of the case. With our without Sotomayor, a court majority could be poised to strip restrictions on corporate financing of various forms of political speech during election seasons.

Over the course of his long-disputed election, Franken (or at least his lawyers) became intimately involved with the nuances of the nation’s election law governing campaign finance. An advisory opinion that Franken obtained from the Federal Election Commission allowing national parties to set up post-election campaign funds appeared to be of greater net financial benefit to his Republican rival Norm Coleman.

Another judiciary topic of potential interest to Franken: the Supreme Court’s recent decision reversing an appeals-court ruling in the New Haven fire-fighters discrimination case that Sotomayor helped make.

The Rochester Post-Bulletin reports this morning on how that Supreme Court decision could impact the outcome of a similar case involving the Rochester Fire Department. That case involves a Native American man and a woman who were not hired even though they passed a qualifying exam.