WASHINGTON — The question dominating the hearing today and Wednesday for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will not be whether she will win confirmation, but whether Senate Republicans can fix her in the public's mind as a biased judge unlikely to follow the law.
The possibility of lively exchanges became clear Monday with the opening of the Sotomayor hearing, even as Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee acknowledged that President Obama's nominee was almost certain to win confirmation.
But Sotomayor, who sits on the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, gave no sign that she was anxious to play along.
In a short, low-key statement, she described her now-famous journey from a Bronx housing project to academic success at Princeton and Yale universities and eventually to a federal judgeship in New York.
Sotomayor, who would become the first Latino on the high court if confirmed, said her judicial philosophy was simple: "fidelity to the law."
Although the hearing is unlikely to slow Sotomayor's march toward confirmation, it could shape the public's perception of her and Obama's decision to nominate her. As the hearing got underway, a CBS News poll found that 62% of the respondents said they were undecided about Sotomayor. Of those who had an opinion, 23% were favorable and 15% were unfavorable.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Sotomayor's mostly uncontroversial judicial opinions were "not a good test because those cases were necessarily restrained by precedent and the threat of reversal. . . . On the Supreme Court, those checks on judicial power will be removed and [her] philosophy will be allowed to reach full bloom."
Sessions said her speeches, in which she talked about how a "wise Latina" would reach a "better conclusion than a white male," were "shocking and offensive."
"I will not vote for -- no senator should vote for -- an individual . . . who believes it is acceptable for a judge to allow their own personal background, gender, prejudices or sympathies to sway their decision," he said.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Sotomayor's speeches caused him to doubt her.
"Judge Sotomayor clearly rejected the notion that judges should strive for an impartial brand of justice," he said. She "endorses the view that a judge should allow her gender, ethnic and experience-based biases to guide her when rendering judicial opinions."
