Republican senator backs Sonia Sotomayor

WASHINGTON — In the Senate, freedom apparently comes with retirement.

On Wednesday, three Republicans who are not seeking reelection next year broke with their party and announced they would support Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The most notable was Christopher S. Bond, the four-term senator from Missouri. Joining him in backing President Obama's first high court pick were Sens. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Mel Martinez of Florida.

The Senate scheduled a vote for 3 p.m. today.

The three Republicans are among a handful of defectors in what has become a charged partisan conflict over the role of judges and the direction of the high court.

Because Democrats command a large majority in the Senate, the outcome of the vote on Sotomayor holds little suspense. But from the White House's standpoint, more Republican votes in her favor will bolster Obama's contention that she is a "mainstream" judge who enjoys bipartisan support.

L. Marvin Overby, a political scientist at the University of Missouri at Columbia, said Bond and the other soon-to-be-retired senators don't "have to curry favor with interests on the far right who are opposing Sotomayor."

Bond used the opportunity Wednesday to implore his colleagues to return to a more civilized approach to judicial nominations. The country, Bond said, "is tired of partisanship infecting every debate. The country is tired of every action by the Congress becoming a political battle."

Earlier in the day, Martinez said he believed Sotomayor would "rule with restraint." And he dismissed the furor over her "wise Latina" remark -- saying that the New York federal appellate judge's opinions were what mattered most, "not what she said to a group of students one day."

Sotomayor has been criticized by some Republicans for a 2001 speech at UC Berkeley in which she said she hoped a "wise Latina" judge would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male.

Martinez's view was disputed by one of his Republican colleagues from Arizona.

"The clear and unmistakable inference in her speeches is that she embraces the fact that minorities and women will reach a different outcome -- indeed, a better outcome," Sen. Jon Kyl said.

Martinez, a Cuban American, charged that some Republicans were using Sotomayor's speeches as "an excuse" not to vote for her confirmation. Her critics, he said, "have yet to produce objective evidence that she has allowed personal bias to influence her judicial decision-making."