WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor got a warm welcome Monday from the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats as Chairman Patrick Leahy hailed her "historic nomination," but Republicans charged that she too often allows personal views to color her judicial rulings.
The first Hispanic to be nominated for the court, Sotomayor faces what's expected to be a week of hearings that feature largely polite exchanges with Democrats but sharp, pointed questions from the GOP.
The committee has 12 Democrats and seven Republicans. "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., even though he and his GOP colleagues offered a long list of concerns.
"President (Barack) Obama said that he would nominate judges based on their ability to empathize in general and with certain groups in particular. This empathy standard is troubling to me," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "The Constitution requires that judges be free from personal politics, feelings and preferences."
Leahy, D-Vt., opened Monday's hearing by recalling other "firsts" on the court and how their races or ethnicities once raised questions.
Today, however, Leahy said, "we're in a different era," and he said he hoped that Sotomayor would get the same kind of consideration as Sandra Day O'Connor, whom President Ronald Reagan named as the first woman on the Supreme Court in 1981. O'Connor won overwhelmingly bipartisan support.
President Barack Obama "has done his part" in nominating Sotomayor, Leahy said. "He's made an historic nomination."
As Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., also was praising the nominee, a man leapt up in the audience and hollered, "What about the unborn? Abortion is murder." Police quickly removed him from the room, and Leahy said that there'd be "no outbursts for or against the nominee."
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee's top Republican, stuck largely to judicial philosophy, expressing his concern that too often "a judge is free to push his or her own courtroom political and social agenda. I reject this view."
Too often, he charged, Sotomayor has a philosophy that "allows subjectivity" and affects her rulings on issues such as abortion, gun control, private property rights and capital punishment.
"I will not vote for - no senator should vote for - an individual nominated by any president who is not fully committed to fairness and impartiality towards every person who appears before them," Sessions said.
"I will not vote for - 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 in favor of, or against, parties before the court.
"In my view," he said, "such a philosophy is disqualifying."
Graham said that Sotomayor's 2001 comment that a "wise Latina" could come to better conclusions than white males was particularly troubling.
"If I'd said anything remotely like that, my career would be over," Graham said. "I think your experience can add a lot to the court, but I don't think it makes you better than anyone else."
While those questions will get a full airing this week, Monday sent a signal that the historic nature of this nomination - and the Democrats' strong majority - will make it hard for Sotomayor to be rejected.
Leahy described "Judge Sotomayor's journey to this hearing room (as) a truly American story," as he mentioned her up-from-the-bootstraps life, starting in the South Bronx. He reviewed her stellar, and in some cases groundbreaking, academic and legal career.
She had a lot of options after graduating from Yale Law School, Leahy said, but "chose to serve her community" as a prosecutor. Then it was on to judgeships; President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the federal district court and President Bill Clinton elevated her to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals about 10 years ago.
"She's had more federal court judicial experience than any nominee to the Supreme Court in nearly 100 years," Leahy said.
Her strength, he said, is that she has a "deep understanding of the lives of ordinary Americans."
"We do not have to speculate what kind of a justice she will be. We've seen what kind of a judge she has been," Leahy said. "She's been a judge for all Americans. She'll be a justice for all Americans."
Republicans are more skeptical, vowing to press Sotomayor on her views on affirmative action and "empathy," a quality that Obama has stressed.
The questioning is to begin Tuesday. Monday was a day for setting the table for what's to come, starting with opening statements from the committee members and Sotomayor, who was expected to speak Monday afternoon.
She did speak briefly at the start. Leahy asked Sotomayor whether she wanted to introduce any of her family members.
"If I introduced everybody who's family, like we'd be here all morning," she joked.
An animated Sotomayor then turned in her chair and cited her brother, mother, mother's husband, niece and other relatives.
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