On July 17, 2009, Cone testified as a witness (representing the Democratic Party) before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Cone read a prepared statement in support of Sotomayor's nomination which chronicled Major League Baseball's labor dispute of 1994 and the impact of the judge's decision which forced the disputants back to the bargaining table. Cone said, "It can be a good thing to have a judge in district court or a justice on the United States Supreme Court who recognizes that the law cannot always be separated from the realities involved in the disputes being decided."