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Culture wars intrude on a day of cordiality

July 14, 2009
Ann Gerhart, Washington Post

It was but a blip of perhaps 20 seconds, a hiccup in an orderly, polite proceeding, some shouted words about abortion being wrong.

Heads swiveled toward the back of Room 216 in the Hart Senate Office Building, where Judge Sonia Sotomayor had been sitting at a table alone for hours, pleasantly impassive, waiting her turn to speak. The final senator on the Judiciary Committee was giving his opening statement; Minnesota Democrat Al Franken is the newest, so he went last.

A group of citizens was being ushered quietly from the room. The public, too, had been taking turns all day, 50 at a time, lining up for free tickets to see democracy at work. On the way out, an older white-haired woman turned to yell about overturning Roe v. Wade, then slipped through the door, where Capitol Hill police promptly arrested her.

• Read the complete article.

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