WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel will testify at the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Senate Judiciary Committee said.

McDaniel will testify at the hearings, which begin Monday, as a voice of Democratic support for Sotomayor, a judge on the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

In addition to McDaniel appearing before the Senate Judiciary committee in support of Sotomayor is, among others, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, JoAnne A. Epps, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law, on behalf of the National Association of Women Lawyers; and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Among those appearing for the Republican opposition is: Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity; Peter Kirsanow, a commissioner on the federal Commission on Civil Rights; David Kopel, a lawyer with the Independence Institute; and John McGinnis, a professor at Northwestern University Law School.

President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the vacancy left by retiring Associate Justice David Souter.

Sotomayor was nominated in 1991 by Republican President George H. W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In 1997, Democratic President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.