Jul 13, 12:26 PM (ET)
By DAVID ESPO and MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats praised Sonia Sotomayor as a Hispanic pioneer well qualified for the Supreme Court on Monday, but Republicans questioned her impartiality and President Barack Obama's views as well at the start of confirmation hearings.
Despite Republican misgivings, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Sotomayor, "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed.
"And I don't think you will" have a meltdown, he added quickly as Sotomayor sat listening, her face in a half-smile.
Graham spoke after Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised Sotomayor in remarks that opened the proceedings in a packed Senate hearing room. "She's been a judge for all Americans. She'll be a justice for all Americans," he said.
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"Let no one demean this extraordinary woman," Leahy said in a warning to committee Republicans to tread lightly in the days ahead.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican, vowed a "respectful tone" and "maybe some disagreements" when lawmakers begin questioning Sotomayor on Tuesday.
Moments later, he took aim at Sotomayor's 2001 statement that her standing as a "wise Latina woman" would sometimes allow her to reach a better decision than a white male.
"I will not vote for, and no senator should vote for an individual nominated by any president who believes it is acceptable for a judge to allow their own personal background, gender, prejudices or sympathies to sway their decision," he said.
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That was a reference to Obama's declaration - made before he named Sotomayor - that he wanted a person of empathy on the high court.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., made a spirited rebuttal later in the morning. "The empathy that President Obama saw in you has a constitutionally proper place" in the judiciary," he said.
Obama named Sotomayor, 55 and a child of the South Bronx, to replace retiring Justice David Souter.
While Souter was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, he became a reliable member of the court's liberal faction.
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Sotomayor, who has served 17 years as a federal judge, including 11 on the appeals court, listened silently from her seat at the witness table a few feet away as the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee made introductory remarks.
Her turn to speak came next, to be followed by two or three days of questioning from the panel that will cast the first votes on her appointment.
Leahy and Sessions escorted Sotomayor to her seat before the hearing began into the first Supreme Court nominee by a Democratic president in 15 years.
Outside, a small group of anti-abortion protesters opposed to her confirmation unfurled a banner that said, "Senators: Stop the Slaughter! Filibuster Sotomayor." It was unclear whether Sotomayor saw them.
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From its opening moments, the hearing was drenched in racial politics.
"The Hispanic element of this hearing is important, but ... this is mostly about liberal and conservative politics more than it is about anything else," said Graham.
In the Senate as a whole, there was no talk of a filibuster, under which Republicans would attempt to block a vote on her nomination. Instead, barring a gaffe of major proportions, as Graham said, Sotomayor seemed on her way to confirmation even before Leahy rapped the opening gavel.
Graham hinted that he would vote to confirm Sotomayor, but he was the only Republican to sound so inclined.
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Said Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.: "From what she has said, she appears to believe that her role is not constrained to objectively decide who wins based on the weight of the law but who, in her opinion, should win."
"The factors that will influence her decisions apparently include her gender and Latina heritage and foreign legal concepts that get her creative juices going." he added.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, broadened that line of skepticism to include Obama. He noted that as a senator, the president opposed Janice Rogers Brown, an African-American appointee to the appeals court by President George W. Bush.
"He argued that the test of a qualified judicial nominee is whether she can set aside her personal views" and decide cases on their merits, Hatch said.
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Hatch added, "But today, President Obama says that personal empathy is an essential ingredient in judicial decisions."
In the nearly seven weeks since Sotomayor's nomination, critics have labored without much success to exploit weaknesses in her record.
Even as they try, Republican senators also must take care to avoid offending Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate by attacking Sotomayor too harshly.
Still, Republicans signaled that they will press her to explain past rulings involving discrimination complaints and gun rights, as well as remarks that they say raise doubts about her ability to judge cases fairly.
The most fertile ground for Republican questioning appears to be on race and ethnicity, focused on Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment and a ruling on white firefighters from New Haven, Conn., who won their Supreme Court case last month.
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 a New York appeals court panel that included Sotomayor.
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