WASHINGTON — Sonia Sotomayor enters confirmation hearings for her historic nomination to the Supreme Court with reason to be confident about the outcome, Democrats have the votes in the Senate to make her the court's first Hispanic and third woman justice.
Hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee begin Monday with opening remarks from the panel's 12 Democrats and 7 Republicans, followed by Sotomayor's own statement that is expected to emphasize her compelling rise from poverty in New York City.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee chairman, planned to kick off the proceedings with laudatory remarks that also sought to firmly establish Sotomayor as a judge who follows wherever the law leads her.
"In truth, we do not have to speculate about what kind of a justice she will be because we have seen the kind of judge she has been. She is a judge in which all Americans can have confidence. She has been a judge for all Americans and will be a justice for all Americans," Leahy said in excerpts of his statement that were provided to The Associated Press.
Questioning of Sotomayor will wait for Tuesday.
In the nearly seven weeks since President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Souter, critics have labored without much success to exploit weaknesses in her record. Republican senators also must take care to avoid offending Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, by attacking Sotomayor too harshly.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, highlighted the potential political pitfalls for Republicans when he noted on "Fox News Sunday" that a third of his constituents are Hispanic and that they want Sotomayor judged fairly.
Still, Republicans signaled that they will press the 55-year-old New Yorker and veteran federal judge to explain past rulings involving discrimination complaints and gun rights, as well as remarks that they say raise doubts about Sotomayor's ability to judge cases fairly.
The sharpest comments about her so far came Sunday from Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the committee.
Sotomayor has said repeatedly in speeches over the past 10 years that personal experiences influence a judge's decisions, Sessions said.
"She has criticized the idea that a woman and a man would reach the same result. She expects them to reach different results. I think that's philosophically incompatible with the American system," Sessions said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Leahy responded that Sotomayor's 17-year record on the federal bench shows her to be a "mainstream judge."
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who will introduce Sotomayor to the panel, predicted that Sotomayor will win significant Republican support and get more than the 78 votes, including 22 Democrats, that John Roberts received in his confirmation as chief justice in 2005. The Senate has 58 Democrats, 40 Republicans and two independents who generally side with the Democrats.
Obama called Sotomayor on Sunday to wish her luck at the hearings, compliment her for making courtesy calls to 89 senators and express his confidence that she would win Senate approval, the White House said.
The most fertile ground for Republican questioning appears to be on race and ethnicity, focused on Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment and the white firefighters from New Haven, Conn., who won their Supreme Court case last month.
In a speech in 2001, Sotomayor said she hoped a "wise Latina" often would reach better conclusions than a white male without the same life experience.
By a 5-4 vote last month, the high court agreed with the firefighters, who claimed they were denied promotions on account of their race after New Haven officials threw out test results because too few minorities did well. The court reversed a decision by Sotomayor and two other federal appeals court judges.
The two issues could allow Republicans to try to create the impression that Sotomayor is a "prisoner of identity politics," said Cambridge University's David Garrow, an avid court watcher.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Nation
Related Photos
-
Charles Dharapak
Discussion
July 13, 2009
Senate starts on Sotomayor's historic nomination
- Nation
-
-
Egyptians in US already looking toward the future
Waves of celebration rippled out of Egypt and washed onto America's shores Friday, with Egyptian-Americans already looking to the future after the departure of President Hosni Mubarak and his three decades of authoritarian rule.
- Pulitzers handed out When the Pulitzer board handed out the most important prizes in journalism, The New York Times and The Washington Post topped the list of winners— and finalists — as usual.
-
Crews re-enter W.Va. mine to recover 9 bodies
Searchers went back inside a wrecked West Virginia coal mine Monday to pull out more bodies as federal investigators prepared to launch their probe of the explosion that killed 29 men in the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since 1970.
-
Churchgoers honor 29 dead miners _ and profession
A pair of tall black boots and a lunch pail sat near the altar Sunday at the New Life Assembly church, a memorial to the 29 men killed in the worst U.S. mining disaster since 1970 and a thank-you to those who make their living inside the mountains.
-
4 missing W.Va. miners dead; final toll at 29
Rescue workers found four bodies deep in a West Virginia coal mine, dashing the fading hopes of finding more survivors of a violent explosion that claimed 29 lives, making it the worst U.S. mining disaster in a generation.
-
Obama promises quick court replacement for Stevens
The retirement of John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court's leading liberal but a justice who also could find conservative allies, will set off an election-year political battle over President Barack Obama's second high court pick.
-
Funerals begin for victims of W.Va. mine blast
As grieving relatives began burying some of the 25 coal miners killed in a massive underground explosion, crews prepared to go back into the mine Friday despite increasingly slim odds of finding survivors.
-
Smoke, fear of fire push rescuers from W.Va. mine
Rescue teams trekked far enough into a ruined coal mine early Friday to see that no one had used a chamber where four missing miners could have sought refuge, further dimming hopes of anyone else surviving an explosion that killed 25.
-
Search on again for WV coal mine blast survivors
Rescue workers clinging to the slimmest of hope pushed deep into a shattered coal mine early Friday, trying to get far enough to finally resolve whether four miners somehow survived an explosion that killed 25.
-
Gases force crews to abandon W.Va. mine rescue
Dangerous gases forced rescue crews to abandon the search Thursday for four coal miners missing since an explosion killed 25 colleagues in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades.
- More Nation Headlines
-
Ravi Spared Prison in Rutgers Webcam Case
Miss. Prison Quiet After Riot; 1 Dead
Obama Confident Afghans Can Take Security Lead
Raw Video: Deadly Bombing at Yemen Parade Preps
Professor: Chinese Activist's 'Spirit Is Good'
Ring of Fire Eclipse Seen in U.S., Asia
Golden Gate Bridge Celebrates 75 Years
G-8 Seeks Unity on Euro-debt Crisis, Iran
Prosecutors: Trio Planned to Attack Obama's HQ
Obama: G8 Unified in Stance on Iran, Syria
