Today the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to determine whether Judge Sonia Sotomayor will become the first Hispanic to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sotomayor’s nomination has been mired in partisan bickering, with Republicans questioning whether she can dish impartial justice and Democrats arguing that she is uniquely qualified because of her ethnic background.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the panel’s leading Democrat, called Sotomayor, “a careful and restrained judge with a deep respect for judicial precedent.” In contrast, the Committee’s leading Republican Senator, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, criticized Sotomayor’s handling of a discrimination lawsuit filed by 17 white firefighters and one Hispanic in New Haven, Connecticut.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the firefighters last month, overturning a decision by Sotomayor and two other judges. “Judge Sotomayor’s empathy for one group of firefighters turned out to be prejudice against another,” Sessions said.
But Democratic Senator Russ Feingold from Wisconsin, retorted: “No one who reads the whole Berkeley speech could possibly come to that conclusion.” “These are the words of a thoughtful, humble and self-aware judge,” Feingold said.
Sotomayor is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School and a 17-year veteran of the federal bench.