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SUPREME COURT

Papers irrelevant, White House says

The White House hit back Thursday at a key Republican senator who has accused Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s allies of withholding documents from her past.

White House counsel Greg Craig told Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, that board meeting minutes and other papers detailing the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund’s activities while Judge Sotomayor was an outside adviser aren’t relevant to her nomination. Republicans have raised concerns about the judge’s involvement in the group, arguing that it has taken extreme positions.

Judge Sotomayor early last month gave the panel documents she contributed to or helped write as a board member, but Mr. Sessions recently demanded more information about the cases the group handled and policy positions it took while she was involved. The Puerto Rican fund began sending some of that material to the committee Wednesday, but Mr. Sessions’ office said Judge Sotomayor’s backers were delaying the release of the information to prevent a thorough investigation.

Hearings on the nomination are scheduled to begin July 13.

EDUCATION

Accept merit pay, Duncan tells NEA

Education Secretary Arne Duncan challenged members of the National Education Association on Thursday to stop resisting the idea of linking teacher pay to student achievement.

It was Mr. Duncan’s first speech at the union’s annual meeting, a gathering where President Obama was booed when he mentioned the idea of performance pay last year.

“I came here today to challenge you to think differently about the role of unions in public education,” Mr. Duncan told the 2.7 million-member union in San Diego.

“It’s not enough to focus only on issues like job security, tenure, compensation and evaluation,” he said in a speech distributed by the Education Department. “You must become full partners and leaders in education reform. You must be willing to change.”

Unions are an important part of the Democrats’ political base of support. Mr. Duncan, even as he challenged NEA members, promised to include teachers in his decision-making.

“We’re asking Congress for more money to develop compensation programs with you and for you, not to you,” Mr. Duncan said.

WHITE HOUSE

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