The Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 13 to 6, on Tuesday to endorse the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, easing her path to likely confirmation as the first Hispanic member of the tribunal.
As expected, all 12 Democrats on the judiciary panel voted for Judge Sotomayor. But among the seven Republicans on the committee, only Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina voted in favor.
“She is a restrained, fair and impartial judge,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the committee.
The action sends the nomination to the full Senate, where her confirmation by a comfortable margin seems to be assured.
Republican critics of the judge expressed displeasure with her rulings as a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as well as with some of her public comments. The rulings and comments show that she is a judge is too “activist” and liberal and has too little commitment to the rights of gun owners, the critics complained.
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee’s leading Republican, said just before the vote that he was compelled to oppose the nomination because of the judge’s “liberal, pro-government ideology.”
In an Op-Ed article in USA Today on Monday, Mr. Sessions wrote: “I don’t believe that Judge Sotomayor has the deep-rooted convictions necessary to resist the siren call of judicial activism. She has evoked its mantra too often. As someone who cares deeply about our great heritage of law, I must withhold my consent.”
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Mr. Sessions’ questioning of the nominee had been “sharp but fair.” Still, Mr. Schumer said, he was perplexed that anyone could accuse the nominee of being a liberal activist, since an examination of her record shows her to be a moderate.
Barring some totally unforeseen event or shocking disclosure, confirmation is inevitable, since the Democrats have a 60-to-40 advantage in the Senate, counting two independents who vote with them. Moreover, several Republicans in addition to Mr. Graham have announced that they will vote for her.
Mr. Graham said he supported the nomination, despite early reservations. “I feel good about Judge Sotomayor,” he said, adding he was sure that she would decide cases “based on what she thinks is right” and be an inspiration for young women. The Senate is expected to debate the nomination next week, so Judge Sotomayor is likely to be sworn in as the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice (and only its third woman) in time for the start of the high court’s next term, which begins in October.
Judge Sotomayor’s Hispanic heritage — her parents moved to New York City from Puerto Rico — may have been an advantage when President Obama was poring over his short list of candidates to replace Justice David H. Souter, but it has also caused her some trouble. The judge’s observation that “a wise Latina woman” might come to a better decision than a white man, at least in some circumstances, was heavily criticized during the committee hearing, and her detractors seemed not entirely persuaded by her attempts to disown her past statements, or at least put them in better context.
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said he struggled with his decision and had decided “with regret” to vote against the judge. He said his opposition was based on a close study of her rulings — unlike, he said, the opposition of Barack Obama in 2005, when he was a Senator, to the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be chief justice.
Mr. Hatch asserted that Mr. Obama’s vote against the Roberts nomination appeared to have been prompted simply by his belief that the jurist would rule in ways that Mr. Obama did not like. But the committee’s newest member, Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, suggested during the hearings that some Republicans seemed to be guilty of the same thing: painting Judge Sotomayor as an activist judge because they found her rulings not to their liking.
In any event, Judge Sotomayor seems likely to be confirmed by a wider margin than the man she would supplant as the high court’s most junior member, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was selected by former President George W. Bush. Justice Alito was approved by 58 to 42 in early 2006, with only four Democrats voting for him.
Chief Justice Roberts Jr. was confirmed by 78 to 22 in the fall of 2005, with half the Senate’s Democrats joining all the chamber’s Republicans in support.
