Can the Democrats confirm Sotomayor without the Republicans?
Yes they can. They need only need 51 votes in the senate.
Yes and no. Until the Senator for Minnesota is seated, whoever he winds up being, anyway.
At the moment the Democrats have 59 seats, 1 short of the number required to block a filibuster.
If the Republicans don’t attempt to filibuster, then yes they can, because they only require a simple majority to approve the nomination.
ETA: If the “Gang of 14” which blocked Democrat plans to filibuster W’s nominees is still in place, then there won’t be a filibuster. However, AFAICT they disappeared once the Democrats took over the Senate anyway.
They need at least one Republican vote for the nomination to make it out of the Judiciary Committee. So if a nomination is so objectionable that it cannot make it out of committee, it won’t move forward.
True. What does the Republican membership of the committee look like?
Further, what if the Senate as a whole wishes to proceed? I suppose this is a bit drastic for the situation, but what iis the procedure for a non-committee member to seek something be brought up to the floor of the Senate, recalling it from committee? I klnow it can be and has been done in the past, but not what hte procedure is.
Jeff Sessions - Ranking Member
Orrin Hatch
Charles Grassley
Jon Kyl
Lindsey Graham
John Cornyn
Tom Coburn
Standing Rules of the Senate
RULE XXXI
EXECUTIVE SESSION - PROCEEDINGS ON NOMINATIONS
- When nominations shall be made by the President of the United States to the Senate, they shall, unless otherwise ordered, be referred to appropriate committees; and the final question on every nomination shall be, “Will the Senate advise and consent to this nomination?” which question shall not be put on the same day on which the nomination is received, nor on the day on which it may be reported by a committee, unless by unanimous consent.
Bolding mine.
I assume this would have to be voted upon, and this motion could itself be filibustered.
Lindsey Graham was a member of the Gang of 14, and it would be awfully dickish of him to vote against her in committee. It’s worth nothing that Chuck Grassley voted against her when she was nominated to the 2nd Circuit by Clinton, though.
Oh, I don’t think it’s worth nothing. I think it’s worth noting at least. 
I thought to get out of the Judiciary Committee required a simple majority vote.
Rules of the committee state that one of those votes must be from the minority.
Apologies for interrupting this thoughtful and helpful discussion, but does that mean there must always be at least one committee member who is not from the Governing party?
What if there was an electoral landslide - would the minority party have to allocate multiple committee places to its members?
Remember, we have staggered elections for the legislature over here, so even when things are going really badly for one side (as they are now for the Republicans) there won’t be an uber-majority. Right now, for example, Congress is split roughly 60/40 between Democrats and Republicans.
Every committee in living memory has included members of both parties.
Ok, I doublechecked the committee rules, and you’re right…sorry. Specificallly, it takes a vote to bring the nomination to a vote, and one of those votes have to be from the minority.
Except for in the House of Representatives.
Here is the rule:
I also thought that getting out of the judicial committee required a majority vote. Technically it still does, but in order for the committee to consider a judicial nominee, one vote from the minority party is required.
Committee membership for the judicial committee is determined by the ratio of the parties in the whole Senate. From their FAQ. Read the first question.
It’s probably the same for all the other committees, but I don’t know for sure.
Remember, the concept of “governing” party does not quite apply to the American system, because the executive is separate from the legislature, and because the two houses of the legislature are also separate and equal. So, you have the party of the president, the majority party of the Senate, and the majority party of the House of Representatives. Theoretically, they may all be different, so there is no “governing” party, as such.
In both houses of the legislature, the minority always has a right to seat members in every committee.
The exact proportion of majority to minority members is worked out at the beginning of each Congress, but the minority will always get some number of places in every committee.