Photo: Franken Senate office

Photo: Franken Senate office

UPDATED: Sen. Al Franken is meeting with Judge Sonia Sotomayor at this hour to learn her views in advance of next week’s hearings on her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. He has said he wants to ask her about campaign finance reform. Franken, who says he’ll act as the “people’s proxy“ at the hearings, is one of few non-lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But he won’t be the only celebrity in the room: former Major League pitcher David Cone is on the just-released list of witnesses.

Cone’s presence indicates senators’ interest in learning about Sotomayor’s role in ending the 1994 Major League Baseball players’ strike. (According to Wikipedia, Cone is one of only two pitchers to throw a no-hitter in interleague play — of those two, he’ll surely be the only one to have testified before a Senate committee.) 

Not a celeb in the conventional sense — but famous as the plaintiff favored in a recent reverse-discrimination decision in which the Supreme Court overturned an appeals-court ruling Sotomayor had helped make — is white firefighter Frank Ricci, who last month wouldn’t say how he felt about Sotomayor’s nomination. His presence on the minority-party witness list suggests he has made up his mind.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, like Franken a Democrat, is also a Senate Judiciary member; Minnesota and Wisconsin are the only states to have both senators on the committee.

UPDATE: ABC News’ blog The Note reports this jocularity (C-SPAN video):

[Sotomayor's] plaster cast [for a broken ankle] has given way to a walking air cast sort of thing. Someone asked her if her leg was feeling better and she said, “much.” … [A] reporter asked Franken how his foot was doing. He chuckled and said, “It’s much worse, actually.”

Now that’s empathy. 

UPDATE: Franken’s office released this statement from the senator: 

Choosing a Supreme Court Justice is one of the most important decisions a United States Senator will make and I’m thrilled to be a member of the Senate in time to participate in the confirmation process. Judge Sotomayor will be the most experienced appointee in 75 years, and has a great life story. I’m glad to have had the chance to meet with her this afternoon, and I look forward to carefully considering her next week during the hearing. 

The current Supreme Court has been sliding back on the rights of Americans as employees, as parents, as consumers, and as investors, and it is critical that the next appointee understand the importance of these protections.

Here are the witnesses scheduled to testify at the Sotomayor hearings, which begin Monday, July 13, at 9 a.m. Central Time:

American Bar Association Witnesses
Kim Askew, Chair of Standing Committee
Mary Boies, Primary Reviewer

Majority (Democratic Party) Witnesses
Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, City of New York
Chuck Canterbury, National President, Fraternal Order of Police
David Cone, former Major League Baseball pitcher
JoAnne A. Epps, Dean, Temple University Beasley School of Law, on behalf of the National Association of Women Lawyers
Louis Freeh, former Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Michael J. Garcia, former U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York
Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Patricia Hynes, President, New York City Bar Association
Dustin McDaniel, Attorney General, State of Arkansas
Robert Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York County, New York
Ramona Romero, National President, Hispanic National Bar Association
Congressman Jose E. Serrano, New York 16th District
Theodore M. Shaw, Professor, Columbia Law School
Kate Stith, Lafayette S. Foster Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Minority (Republican Party) Witnesses
Linda Chavez, President, Center for Equal Opportunity
Sandy Froman, Esq., Former President, National Rifle Association of America
Dr. Stephen Halbrook, Attorney
Tim Jeffries, Founder, P7 Enterprises
Peter Kirsanow, Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
David Kopel, Esq., Independence Institute
John McGinnis, Professor, Northwestern University School of Law
Neomi Rao, Professor, George Mason University School of Law
Frank Ricci, Director of Fire Services, ConnectiCOSH (Connecticut Council on Occupational Safety and Health)
David Rivkin, Esq., Partner, Baker Hostetler
Nick Rosenkranz, Professor, Georgetown University School of Law
Ilya Somin, Professor, George Mason University School of Law
Lieutenant Ben Vargas, New Haven Fire Department
Dr. Charmaine Yoest, Americans United for Life