NAME – Sonia Sotomayor.
AGE-BIRTHDATE-LOCATION – 55; June 25, 1954; New York, N.Y.
EXPERIENCE – Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1998-present; judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 1992-98; private practice, New York City, 1984-92; assistant district attorney, New York County, 1979-84.
EDUCATION – B.A., Princeton University, 1976; J.D., Yale Law School, 1979.
FAMILY – Divorced; no children.
QUOTE – “I don’t believe we should bend the Constitution under any circumstance. It says what it says. We should do honor to it.”

WASHINGTON  – Sonia Sotomayor will be sworn in as the 111th justice of the Supreme Court on Saturday, with Chief Justice John Roberts administering two oaths of office.

The 55-year-old Sotomayor will repeat one oath as prescribed by the Constitution in a private ceremony at the high court at 11 a.m. It will be open only to members of Sotomayor’s family. Then, Roberts will administer a second oath, taken by judges, with the new justice’s family and friends, and reporters present.

Spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said the ceremony apparently will be the first one open to television cameras in the court’s history.

WASHINGTON  – Republican Sen. Richard Burr says he will vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The North Carolina senator says he is troubled by the judge’s decisions in cases where she “appears to have relied on something other than well-settled law” to make her decision. He says he is afraid she cannot separate her personal beliefs from the law.

He added that he believes she has clearly ignored precedent in several cases, saying he finds “little predictability in her decisions and the implications they may have.”

Burr, who is up for re-election next year, compared his decision with that of President Barack Obama in 2005, when the then-senator voted against Chief Justice John Roberts.

The Senate is expected to vote on the nomination next week.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to send Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination on to the full Senate.

Republicans came to Judge Sotomayor, impressed by her qualifications and experience, but extremely skeptical of whether she’ll be fair on the bench.

The Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 6 with every Republican except South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham against her.

Graham said his vote is based on her record, not her personal views.

“I can no more understand her heart than she can understand mine,” said   Graham.

The remaining Republicans said they have deep concerns.

“Speeches and articles describe a troubling record that hearing testimony did not resolve, said Utah’s Orrin Hatch.

“I’m not convinced she can set aside personal biases and decide cases based on the constitution,” said Iowa’s Charles Grassley.

“I am not able to confirm this nomination,” said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Sotomayor brings nearly 30 years experience in law.

That’s more than the last three nominees.

But it’s her controversial statements off the bench, saying judges make law or that a wise Latino could reach a better decision than a white man, that put her on the defensive.

Sotomayor’s supporters insist she’s clearly qualified.

“In her 17 years on bench, not one example of her ruling based on bias or sympathy,” said democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

“I certainly don’t see any bias of any kind,” said democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.

“I’ll vote for her with enormous pride,” said California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

A full Senate vote is expected next week.

WASHINGTON  – The NRA stepped up its push Thursday against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, warning that backers risk losing ground with gun rights supporters, even as a powerful business lobby came out in support of President Barack Obama’s first high court nominee.

The promise by the National Rifle Association, which announced its opposition to Sotomayor last week, to include the vote on her nomination in its influential annual ratings of lawmakers is highly unlikely to prevent Sotomayor from being confirmed in early August. But it amounts to a threat to those considering backing her, which could make the upcoming vote politically tougher for some Republicans and conservative Democrats whose constituents are strong gun rights advocates.

It came as Sotomayor won the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which called Sotomayor a well-qualified judge who would be fair and evenhanded on business issues. The Chamber, in consultation with its litigation arm, has backed every Supreme Court nominee since Justice David Souter, who Sotomayor would replace if confirmed.

Sotomayor, the 55-year-old appeals court judge who’s in line to become the first Hispanic justice, has solid backing from Democrats and a handful of Republicans, although GOP leaders and most of the party’s conservatives are lining up solidly against her. She met Thursday on Capitol Hill with Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, John Barrasso of Wyoming and John Ensign of Nevada, who have not said how they will vote.

Republicans are deeply divided on Sotomayor’s nomination, torn between a desire to please their conservative base by opposing Obama’s nominee and a fear that doing so would alienate women and particularly Hispanic voters who represent a fast-growing part of the electorate. Some GOP moderates have announced they’ll back Sotomayor, and she picked up support Wednesday from conservative Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, which could provide some measure of cover to others in his party considering voting yes.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Sotomayor’s unofficial guide through her confirmation process, called Graham a “bellwether” whose endorsement “suggests that more Republicans should end up supporting her as well.”

But conservative activists are doing all they can to counter such pressure, even in the face of virtually guaranteed defeat. In a letter to senators, NRA head Wayne LaPierre and chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox wrote that, “Given the importance of this issue, the vote on Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation will be considered in NRA’s future candidate evaluations.”

The letter said Sotomayor has a “hostile view” of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

It comes one day after the gun lobby suffered a major loss in the Senate with defeat of a measure that would have let people carry hidden guns in 48 states if they had a concealed weapon permit in any one of them.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control group that has joined the nation’s major law enforcement organizations in backing Sotomayor, suggested Thursday that her confirmation would deflate the NRA’s legendary clout in Washington.

The NRA’s decision to score the vote, wrote the Brady Campaign’s Doug Pennington in an e-mail, is “the clearest example yet by which to judge the NRA’s reputation as the ‘Death Star’ of D.C. lobbying, with the power to destroy all opponents and scare senators into zombie-like lockstep voting behavior.”

WASHINGTON  – The American Bar Association says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is well qualified to serve on the high court.

The ABA committee that reviewed her qualifications came out with that unanimous rating of the federal appeals court judge. That finding is in a letter to White House lawyer Greg Craig that was released Tuesday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to begin hearings on the nomination next week. Sotomayor is President Barack Obama’s choice to replace retired Justice David Souter.

The last time the ABA reviewed Sotomayor’s qualifications, a majority on ABA panel rated her as well-qualified, but it was not unanimous.

WASHINGTON – Eight national law enforcement organizations are endorsing President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

The groups announced their support for the judge at the White House. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Sotomayor (SUHN’-ya soh-toh-my-YOR’) is a highly qualified nominee who will be an “able champion of the law.”

Vice President Joe Biden thanked the organizations for supporting Sotomayor, and said her “lifelong commitment to law enforcement is hard to argue with.” She once worked as an assistant prosecutor in Morgenthau’s office.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that Americans have a more favorable first impression of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor than they did for any of President George W. Bush’s nominees to the high court.
     
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WASHINGTON  – The White House says President Barack Obama is “very comfortable” that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor shares his philosophy about the Constitution, including rights not specifically spelled out in the document.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama did not specifically ask Sotomayor about the right to privacy. The debate over that right has come up in the context of several matters involving the court, including abortion rights.

As a candidate for president, Obama promised that he would not appoint anyone who doesn’t believe in the right to privacy.

Pressed on the matter, Gibbs would only answer broadly, saying Obama was very comfortable with her interpretation of the Constitution being similar to his.