Today is a great national opportunity. It's an opportunity to recognize that the nomination of one of the most qualified candidates to the Supreme Court in American history could not have happened anywhere else in the world.

Three decades of jurisprudence and the centrality of First Amendment freedom in our lives.

your fidelity is first and foremost to the rule of law

I think you have made a great impression on America today.

I do not think she would adopt the Red Sox as her team.

We in New York are so proud of you and to your whole family, who I know are exceptionally proud to be here today to support this historic nomination.

I believe Judge Sotomayor's record of judicial integrity, impartiality and, as she puts it, fidelity to the law, is one we can all admire regardless of party or ideology.

When I walk into the Capitol to work every day, I often stop and think how fortunate I am as a kid from a Bronx project to make it here.

Judge Sotomayor has stellar credentials. There's no question about that.

We were surrounded by people making do on little. Sometimes there was desperation and despair.

These were not liberal or New York or Puerto Rican or Latino values. They are American values.

The only point I am making here, if some are seeking to suggest that your empathy or sympathy overrules rule of law, this is a pretty good body of law to look at.

The appropriate remedial scheme for deaths occurring off the United States coast is clearly a legislative policy choice which should not be made by the courts.

It is our overwhelming belief that Judge Sotomayor meets these criteria.

Judge Sotomayor puts rule of law above everything else.

I want to thank every witness for coming, but particularly extend a welcome to two of New York's greatest public servants, Mayor Bloomberg and District Attorney Morgenthau.

Judge Sotomayor's story is a great American story and, I might add, a great New York story as well.

Make no mistake. The stakes are high for Hispanic-Americans.

This proud woman from the Bronx is perhaps the best and the brightest we have.

And you have never relied on a foreign court to interpret U.S. law nor would you.

You found rule of law on the other side and you sided with rule of law.

Sonia represents the best of American culture. She comes directly from the strand of our national character that says, 'You can be anything you want.'

I will continue to work with my colleagues to provide these resources and the oversight that is critical to the success of the Agency.

I think the SEC should move to New York City, at least the Enforcement Division as a whole. I do. I think it would do a much, much better job.

I think there has been too much of a reliance on lawyers--I am not against lawyers; I am one--and not enough on the investigative type people who have had experience in the financial world.