Response to Sotomayor court choice spans spectrum

— -- Reaction to the Supreme Court nomination of federal appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday spanned the spectrum of opinion, from rave reviews to thumbs down to let's wait and see.

The Senate could decide this summer on the fate of President Obama's pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Many Republicans on Tuesday counseled patience and fair scrutiny.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Republicans "will reserve judgment on Sonia Sotomayor until there has been a thorough and thoughtful examination of her legal views."

Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and member of Judiciary Committee that will hold hearings on the nomination, said Sotomayor "must prove her commitment to impartially deciding cases based on the law, rather than based on her own personal politics, feelings, and preferences."

Another Republican judiciary member, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, promised tough questioning on the role of the court.

"Today the Senate can't just be a rubber stamp for President Obama's nominees," Grassley said.

Sotomayor drew plenty of support from Democrats. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau was Sotomayor's boss when she served as a prosecutor from 1979 to 1984. Moganthau called her "an outstanding choice" who would be centrist much like Souter.

He credited her "wisdom, intelligence, collegiality, and good character needed to fill the position for which she has been nominated.

"It is a credit to the President, and indeed to the United States, that an individual born in humble circumstances in the South Bronx can, simply by dint of talent and hard work, rise to be recognized as the right candidate for a seat on the highest Court in the land."

Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said that "when confirmed," Sotomayor will serve "in the mold of Justice Souter, who understands the real-world impact of the Court's decisions, rather than the mold of the conservative activists who second-guess Congress, and who through judicial extremism undercut laws meant to protect Americans from discrimination."