Sotomayor hearing moves to key social issues | Reuters

Sotomayor hearing moves to key social issues | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor faces tough questioning on Tuesday as lawmakers seek to discover where she might take the country on issues such as abortion, guns and race.

Sotomayor, 55, began her confirmation hearing on Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee split largely along party lines over her nomination, which would make her the first Hispanic justice on the top U.S. court.


Democrats who control the Senate say Sotomayor has both the legal expertise and the life experience to serve on the nine-member court that has been closely divided with four liberal and five conservative members.

Republicans, however, have attacked her as a "judicial activist" who they say will seek to use her own liberal biases to bend the outcome of the law.

Both views will be put to the test in a series of questions beginning on Tuesday when Sotomayor will be asked to detail specific views on issues that have frequently divided the country along fiercely ideological lines.

"Her interaction with senators which will start tomorrow will be an extremely important part of the process," said Senator Benjamin Cardin, a Democratic member of the committee.

Republicans concede that they probably do not have the votes to derail Sotomayor's nomination, and have pledged that the hearing will be respectful but thorough as befits a job interview for what is a lifetime appointment.

Sotomayor could face questions on how far the U.S. Constitution goes to protect privacy rights, the core issue that underpinned the 1973 Supreme Court ruling in the Roe versus Wade case that legalized abortion in the United States.

DEEPLY DIVISIVE ISSUE

The issue remains deeply divisive: four people, including one of the original plaintiffs in the 1973 case who now campaigns against abortion, were ejected from Monday's confirmation hearing for shouting slogans equating abortion with murder.

More questions are likely to center on Sotomayor's stance toward gun ownership.

She was part of a three-judge appeals court panel that issued a brief, unsigned ruling in January leaving states free to put in effect gun-control limits -- a position that has alarmed some gun advocates such as the powerful National Rifle Association.

But perhaps the toughest questions for Sotomayor could focus on her views about race, both in her personal role as a judge and in the law, where racial preferences, or "affirmative action," remain fiercely contested.

A 2001 speech in which Sotomayor said that a "wise Latina" might arrive at better legal decisions than a white male has raised conservative ire, as has her ruling as an appeals court judge upholding a city's right to junk firefighter exam results that do not produce enough minority candidates.

Republicans and other critics say these views hint that Sotomayor will allow her personal, political feelings to affect the outcome of judicial rulings -- even as Democrats assert that her hardscrabble beginnings are crucial to her ability to serve as a high court justice for all Americans.

Sotomayor herself on Monday indicated she believed the Republican criticism was misplaced, saying "In each case I have heard, I have applied the law to the facts at hand."

"My personal and professional experiences help me listen and understand, with the law always commanding the result in every case," she said.