Toughest grilling still to come for Sotomayor

WASHINGTON -- In her opening effort to blunt Republican criticism that her rulings would be slanted by her background or ethnic sympathies, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor pledged "fidelity to the law" Monday and said she would interpret the Constitution by its terms.

For nearly four hours during senators' opening remarks, Sotomayor sat quietly at the witness table. She did not betray her thoughts as one Republican senator after another sought to cast her as a justice who would go beyond the bounds of the law and decide cases based on personal interest.

When it was her turn, she used her 10 minutes to remind the senators before her and the audience watching on national television of her improbable rise from the Bronx, as well as her view that "the task of a judge is not to make the law — it is to apply the law."

Sotomayor, who would be the first high court appointee of a Democratic president in 15 years, spoke slowly in a firm voice, perhaps signaling that she was ready for the real questioning that begins today in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Her GOP critics, including senior Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, also signaled that they are ready to be tough.

Opening statements showed that Sotomayor will have to answer not only for her own record but for President Obama's desire for a jurist with "empathy."

"Our system will only be further corrupted as a result of President Obama's views that … the critical ingredient for a judge is the 'depth and breadth of one's empathy,' " Sessions said.

At the heart of the hearings will be questions about the value of empathy and compassion and how a judge's background can affect rulings. "We want a nominee with a sense of compassion," Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said.

Unlike Republican high court nominees who came before the committee in 2005 and 2006 and far more than the two prior Democratic nominees in 1993 and 1994, Sotomayor entered the hearings under fire for a liberal "activism" by conservatives, such as Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. That claim stems largely from remarks off the bench, not from rulings.