As many of our readers know, I testified at Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, on the subject of property rights. My written testimony (which is much more extensive than the brief oral testimony at the hearing), can be read here. It discusses - in greater detail than I could on this blog - Sotomayor's most notorious property rights ruling: Didden v. Village of Port Chester. I also analyze her much better ruling in Krimstock v. Kelly, a case that addressed an issue that will come before the Supreme Court this fall, in Alvarez v. Smith.

I realize, of course, that what I say is unlikely to affect the outcome of the confirmation process. Nonetheless, it was an honor to be the first witness ever called to testify at a Supreme Court confirmation hearing specifically about property rights issues. Far more importantly, the extensive focus on property rights at these hearings (especially compared to the near-total neglect of these issues when past nominees came before the Senate) is a good sign for the future.

UPDATE: A webcast of the oral testimony should probably be available at the Judiciary Committee website tomorrow.

UPDATE #2: A broadcast of the oral testimony is actually available at the C-SPAN website here. It is the first panel of the "evening" tape. My testimony begins around the 44th minute. There is also a question for me by Senator Jeff Sessions about 15-20 minutes later, where he says the testimony led him to think that the Didden case was worse than he had previously thought.

UPDATE #3: I have corrected the inaccurate link to my written testimony.