Senate poised to make history with Sotomayor vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sonia Sotomayor stands on the verge of making history as the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic justice, despite staunch opposition from Republicans who call her ill-suited for the bench.

The Democratic-led Senate is set to vote today to confirm President Barack Obama’s high-court nominee, a 55-year-old appeals court judge of Puerto Rican descent who was raised in a New York City housing project, educated in the Ivy League and served 17 years on the federal bench.

Sotomayor picked up more GOP support Wednesday even as nearly three-quarters of the Senate’s 40 Republicans said they would vote “no” and contended she would bring liberal bias and personal sympathies to her decisions.

With all Democrats expected to back her, she has more than enough votes to be confirmed, barring a surprise turn of events, in one of the Senate’s last actions before it breaks for the summer.

Democrats, praising her as a well-qualified judge and a mainstream moderate, are warning Republicans that they risk a backlash from Hispanic voters — a growing part of the electorate — if they oppose her.

But Republicans bristle at the suggestion, noting that Democrats used extraordinary measures several years ago to block the confirmation of GOP-nominated Miguel Estrada, a Honduran-born attorney, to a federal appeals court.