By a vote of 68 to 31, the full Senate confirmed federal judge Sonia Sotomayor this afternoon to the bench of the Supreme Court. The confirmation makes Sotomayor, elevated from the U.S. Court of Appeals, the first Hispanic justice to sit on the nation's highest court. It comes as a victory for Sotomayor, who underwent a week under the lights of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but also for Senate Democrats who strongly supported her nomination and fought off GOP attempts to focus on personal missteps, including her reputation as a fierce questioner and a comment she made in a series of speeches that suggested her gender and race would lead to better decisions than other court members would reach. President Obama, who nominated Sotomayor in May, was pleased by the news that his first appointment to the Supreme Court had been approved. Speaking briefly at the White House immediately after the vote, he told reporters that he thought it was "a wonderful day for America."
Conservative groups and lawmakers, many of which opposed Sotomayor from the beginning, conceded in recent weeks that barring extraordinary circumstances, the judge would have little difficulty winning confirmation. Sen. Orrin Hatch, who cast one of the votes against Sotomayor, said after the vote that he hoped the new justice would adhere to the rule of law and not shape her record as a judicial activist. But despite the confirming vote, some conservative leaders looked on the bright side. The right-leaning group Committee for Justice put out a statement after the vote calling Sotomayor's confirmation a "conservative victory." "Those of us committed to restoring the rule of law to the federal judiciary have many things to be happy about in how Sotomayor's confirmation battle played out," said Curt Levey, the group's director, which, he explained in detail, included the mounting of a formidable opposition and the signals conservatives sent to the White House about acceptable qualities of a future pick.
The 68 votes for approval came from a unanimous Democratic caucus and nine Republicans. Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy was not present to vote.
