Support mounts for Sotomayor

Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor answers questions during her fourth and final day of testimony at her U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington July 16, 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A seventh Republican broke ranks on Wednesday and backed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who appeared virtually certain of winning Senate approval as the first Hispanic on the highest U.S. court.

A vote by the Democratic-led Senate was expected as early as Thursday, with a swearing-in ceremony shortly afterward.

Republican Senator Kit Bond said that, while he has differences with Sotomayor on legal issues, he believes Democratic President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee is well qualified and deserves to be confirmed.

"I will support her. I will be proud for her, the community she represents and the American Dream she shows possible," Bond said in a Senate speech.

Sotomayor rose from poverty to be educated at the finest U.S. schools and enjoy a distinguished law career. A federal judge the past 17 years, she would be the first Hispanic and just the third woman ever on the Supreme Court, established in 1789.

Senate aides, based on private head counts and public declarations, said Sotomayor would win approval comfortably, with between 60 and 70 votes in the 100-member Senate.

As the Senate engaged in a second day of debate on the nominee, Republicans conceded she would be confirmed.

"I don't think there's ever really been any question," a Republican aide said, noting Democrats control 60 seats in the Senate and Republicans had pledged not to block her.

Once confirmed, Sotomayor, 55, would likely be promptly sworn in to replace David Souter, who retired this year.

She is not expected to change the balance on the bench. Souter sided with the liberal wing of the court, which in recent years has often issued 5-4 ruling in favor of conservatives.

Sotomayor is viewed by backers as a moderate who rules strictly by the law, but critics see her as a liberal who allows personal feelings to influence her decisions.

(Editing by David Alexander and Doina Chiacu)