Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mark Begich said he has not yet made up his mind how to vote on President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, but did say Wednesday he was satisfied with Judge Sonia Sotomayor's answers to his questions on gun rights.

"She seems to be an individual that is focused on looking at the law and interpreting what's there in front of her and not over-interpreting," Begich, D-Alaska, said Wednesday after a 45-minute meeting with Sotomayor.

Begich said he stressed to her that the right to bear arms is sacred to Alaskans -- a point emphasized last week by his fellow Alaska senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski. Begich also said he was confident Sotomayor would not "legislate from the bench."

"In Alaska, we're not anxious for activist type of judges," Begich said. "I did not get that sense from her at all, based on her history, but also based on some of the conversation."

Sotomayor, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge, has been meeting with senators for weeks, and by Friday will have sat down with 88. Her confirmation hearings will begin July 13 before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Many western senators have asked Sotomayor about gun rights, and Wednesday some Republican senators began attacking her record on Second Amendment-related cases. The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said Sotomayor's record on gun rights is "scant, but we do know that Judge Sotomayor has twice said that the Second Amendment does not give you and me a fundamental right."

As a Democrat, Begich is more likely to lean toward confirming Sotomayor, but both he and Murkowski said they would wait to make up their minds until the confirmation hearings in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I think the committee process will have more questions put on the table. I want to wait till the process plays out to make a final determination," he said.

Begich said he and Sotomayor also discussed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the "careful balance" Alaskans must achieve with development and environmental issues.

Alaskans have a history of voting for Sotomayor. In 1998, both of Alaska's then-senators, Republicans Ted Stevens and Murkowski's father, Frank Murkowski, voted to confirm Sotomayor as an appellate court judge.

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