Senate panel OKs Sotomayor, sends to full chamber

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is poised for a vote in the full Senate next week and a likely swearing-in soon after as the nation's first Hispanic justice.

The Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed the nominee Tuesday by a 13-6 vote, along almost perfect partisan lines and after two hours of debate.

All Democrats voted for Sotomayor, President Obama's first nominee to the court. All Republicans except Lindsey Graham of South Carolina opposed.

Graham said he was supporting Sotomayor partly because he believes Obama deserves wide latitude to make judicial appointments. Graham deemed Sotomayor "well qualified" and of "good character."

To fellow conservative Republicans, Graham added, "She can be no worse than Souter from our point of view." Newly retired justice David Souter, whom Sotomayor would succeed, was named by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 yet became a reliable vote for the liberal wing.

Democrats currently control 60 of the 100 votes in the Senate, and a majority vote for Sotomayor is not in doubt. Sotomayor, who would become the 111th justice in history, would be the third woman appointed and the second current female justice. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is presently the only woman on the nine-member high court.

When Chief Justice John Roberts was approved by the Senate in September 2005, he was sworn in that day so that he could immediately begin working on court business. The same was true for Justice Samuel Alito in January 2006. For Ginsburg in 1993 and Stephen Breyer in 1994, a few days passed between the Senate vote and the judicial oath. A single justice typically administers the oath, and a ceremonial investiture occurs when the justices are in session.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has said that Sotomayor may want quickly to get to work because of an early case, scheduled for Sept. 9, testing the constitutionality of federal campaign-finance law. The regular 2009-10 term begins Oct. 5.