President Obama is comfortable in Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s position on abortion rights because of “the general way with which she interprets the constitution,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs just said.
Numerous reports on Thursday suggested that some groups that support abortion rights have raised questions on whether Sotomayor would vote to uphold Roe v. Wade because her previous writings have been somewhat non-committal on the issue, they say.
Gibbs said on Thursday that Obama did not ask Sotomayor about abortion rights when they met, nor did Sotomayor volunteer an opinion on the topic. Gibbs reiterated, though, that Obama is confident in Sotomayor’s views because of “her approach to judging.”
Gibbs also said, however, that other White House officials may have discussed abortion rights with Sotomayor.
“I have no reason to believe that if the president didn’t ask that others didn’t,” Gibbs said.