Sotomayor hearing opens Supreme Court debate

By Andrew Quinn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sonia Sotomayor looks almost certain to emerge from Senate hearings this week poised to become the first Hispanic member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

But political debate over President Barack Obama's plans for the top U.S. court has only begun.

Republicans are ready to resist what they fear could be a sharp leftward turn for the court under Obama's Democratic administration, reversing a steady tack to the right under former Republican President George W. Bush.

"For Sotomayor, it is a critical moment to set the public's perception of her. She will define herself for the country in her opening statement," said Doug Kendall, founder of the Constitutional Accountability Center, a liberal legal think tank in Washington.

"But for senators, it is much more about stating their case about the future of the Supreme Court itself."

Obama, a former constitutional law professor, chose the 55-year-old Sotomayor to replace the now-retired Justice David Souter, who had been one of four liberals on the deeply divided nine-member court. Members are appointed for life.

A daughter of Puerto Rican parents who grew up in a public housing project in New York, Sotomayor's story of tough beginnings and Ivy League education mirrors Obama's own while her long experience as prosecutor and appeals court judge gives critics few opportunities to attack her credentials.

Democrats appear confident she will get the nod, although not without some difficult questioning.

"I suspect she will be confirmed, but I would hope it does not turn into a partisan fight for the good of the courts and the good of the Supreme Court," the Judiciary Committee's Democratic Chairman Patrick Leahy said on the CBS "Face the Nation" show on Sunday.

FEW CLUES ON POSITIONS

Legal experts parsing Sotomayor's rulings for clues to her positions on everything from abortion to gun control have come up with little, although most agree she will not change the court's ideological balance which has been split with four liberals and five conservatives.

Barring an unforeseen scandal, Republicans also privately concede that Sotomayor will be confirmed -- not least because Democrats control the needed 60 of the Senate's 100 seats to override any minority opposition.

But they hope to use the nationally broadcast hearing to argue that judges should rule according to the law and without regard to personal feeling.

"Republicans have made a commitment not to prejudge her. This is her opportunity to explain what some may call troubling or puzzling decisions," one Republican aide said.

Obama entered the argument when he said he favored judges with "empathy" -- which conservatives portrayed as shorthand for allowing emotion, or bias, to take precedence over statute.