By Paul Kane and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 6, 2009; 11:35 AM
The Senate is poised to confirm Sonia Sotomayor by mid-afternoon as the nation's 111th Supreme Court justice and the first ever of Hispanic descent, a historic moment for the nation's fastest growing minority group.
Sotomayor's confirmation has been virtually assured since she performed without controversy during appearances last month before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after which almost all 60 Senate Democrats and a few Republicans quickly endorsed her. As more than 13 hours of debate wrapped up Wednesday night, Sotomayor had the support of roughly two-thirds of the 100 senators, including eight Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has called for a 3 p.m. vote, requesting that each senator sit in his or her chair for a formal roll call of names. Such formality is reserved for only the most significant of votes, including impeachment verdicts, war resolutions and the confirmation of justices to the nation's high court. Several supporting senators, including Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.), both of whom have been battling serious illness, may not be on hand, which could result in a vote tally of 'yeas' in the low-to-mid 60s.
When the vote takes place, friends said, Sotomayor will be in the Manhattan courthouse where she has served for the past 11 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. She previously was a federal trial judge for six years. It is unclear when President Obama will swear her in as an associate justice.
She will take her seat on the court in early September when the justices convene for a rare out-of-session hearing on a campaign finance case involving a conservative group that opposed the 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Rodahm Clinton. Sotomayor will begin her first full session as the court's most junior member Oct. 5.
While Republicans and Democrats have agreed her credentials for the court were impeccable, they have spent much of this week arguing about whether speeches Sotomayor gave while not on the bench indicate a bias toward certain minority groups. Thursday morning, as the chamber entered its 14th hour of debate on the nomination, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) gave a somber speech outlining his opposition based on those speeches and a couple of rulings in cases involving affirmative action and gun rights.
It is the first time Hatch, elected in 1976 and a past chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will oppose a Supreme Court nominee. "I am very, very concerned about this nomination. I feel very badly that I have to vote negatively," he said.
With the outcome of the Senate's vote preordained, senators of both political parties have used the debate to try to advance their larger goals.
Democrats have sought to wrest political advantage from widespread Republican opposition to Sotomayor, contending that the GOP is perpetuating partisanship and thwarting the interests of Hispanic voters.
"To say you cannot vote for this qualified Latina sends a message to us, as a community, that we will not forget," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said at a rally Wednesday.
GOP senators repeatedly emphasized their support for gun and private property rights -- and, in broader strokes, sought to deter Obama from choosing liberals to fill future court vacancies.
On Wednesday, Sens. Christopher S. Bond (Mo.) and Judd Gregg (N.H.) became the seventh and eighth Republicans to say they will support Sotomayor. Speaking on the Senate floor, Bond said Sotomayor "has accomplishments and qualities that have always meant Senate confirmation.""There has been no significant finding against her. There has been no public uprising against her," Bond said. "I do not believe the Constitution tells me I should oppose her just because I disagree with her in some cases."
Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.), who is the Senate's only Latino Republican and who has announced that he will vote for Sotomayor, speculated that Obama might nominate a more liberal candidate if there is another court opening. "I disagree with Judge Sotomayor about several issues . . . but probably fewer with her than some I might see in the future," Martinez said, calling her record "well within the mainstream of judicial thinking."
Such flashes of bipartisanship, however, were rare.
Senate Democrats are trying to lend pomp to their first Supreme Court confirmation since 1994, when the chamber approved President Bill Clinton's second and last nominee, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, with far less dissent. This time, Democratic leaders are expected to take the rare step of asking all senators to cast votes from their wooden desks on the Senate floor.
Sotomayor, 55, has been a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit for the past 11 years and before that spent six years as a federal trial judge. Following the lead of Obama, who nominated her in May, Senate Democrats emphasized her life story -- a child raised by a widowed mother in the South Bronx who rose through two Ivy League universities to become a Manhattan prosecutor and a partner at a New York law firm before joining the federal bench.
At a rally with leaders of various civil rights organizations, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a former prosecutor who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said: "Our Republican colleagues have missed a great opportunity today. We could all be celebrating the historic confirmation of the first Latino justice of the Supreme Court. Instead, Republicans are fighting for right-wing control of the court."
Latino leaders who spoke at the rally indicated that Democrats' portrayal of Republicans as anti-Hispanic had hit a nerve. "What is in question is the motivation of the many Republican senators who are saying that they are not going to vote for her," said Lillian Rodriguez Lopez, president of the Hispanic Federation, a coalition of social service agencies. "We may forgive, but we never, ever forget."
Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.), who leads the GOP's Senate campaign committee, disputed the suggestion that his party would suffer from opposing Sotomayor, telling reporters that Hispanic voters in next year's midterm elections would be influenced more by economic considerations than by the Supreme Court vote.
Many Republicans cited concern about three of Sotomayor's judicial opinions that had figured prominently in her confirmation hearings last month before the Judiciary Committee: a discrimination case involving New Haven, Conn., firefighters that recently was overturned by the Supreme Court, a case addressing the Second Amendment right to bear arms and one about property rights.
They focused, too, on remarks she has made off the bench, including a now notorious statement in a speech that "a wise Latina" would reach better decisions as a judge than a white man -- a statement that Sotomayor characterized during her hearings as an unfortunate "rhetorical flourish."
Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), a member of the GOP leadership and the Judiciary Committee, juxtaposed a speech in which Sotomayor said she might rule differently "based on my gender and my Latino heritage" with her Senate testimony, in which she told committee members that judges have an obligation "to examine what they're feeling as they're adjudicating a case and to ensure that that's not influencing their outcome."
Kyl said that "it's hard to understand how the same person could honestly make both statements" and that her attempt to reconcile them "strains credulity."
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) countered, "It is a shame that debate over this historic nomination has been distilled to disputes over snippets of speeches."
Staff writers Chris Cillizza and Ben Pershing contributed to this report.
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The GOP cowards could stop this with a filibuster but they will only vote no and let her go in.
Senate Poised to Confirm Sotomayor 
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