First Hispanic woman nominated to US supreme court appears before Senate for what may be a gruelling session

Sonia Sotomayor, a New York judge who beat a path from a childhood in a housing estate to become America’s first Hispanic supreme court nominee, today began a gruelling run of confirmation hearings in the US Senate.

A New York federal judge, Sotomayor, 55, is the first high court justice nominated by a Democrat in 15 years. She is President Barack Obama’s first opportunity to put his stamp on the court, although she would replace another liberal jurist and is thus not expected dramatically to alter the court’s political direction. She is widely expected to win confirmation and would be only the third woman to sit on the supreme court.

Sotomayor’s stellar academic credentials, years on the federal bench and status as a groundbreaking minority woman give Republican opponents little space to attack her qualifications or preparedness. Republicans instead questioned her impartiality, warning she would let personal biases and ethnic prejudices colour her opinions and that she would rule based on her personal values rather than the law.

“From what she has said, she appears to believe that her role is not constrained to objectively decide who wins based on the weight of the law but who, in her opinion, should win,” Arizona senator Jon Kyl said as Sotomayor sat stone-faced at the witness table. Senator Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican, said Sotomayor would be confirmed barring a “meltdown”.

But conservatives hope to weaken Obama politically by disparaging his first judicial nominee, with some outside the Republican party stoking vague fears of a Washington takeover by minorities with a dim view of whites.

Sotomayor today had her first opportunity to publicly rebut months allegations of judicial bias that followed her appointment in May.

“The task of a judge is not to make the law, it is to apply the law,” she said. “And it is clear, I believe, that my record in two courts reflects my rigorous commitment to interpreting the Constitution according to its terms … In each case I have heard, I have applied the law to the facts at hand.”

Obama’s Democratic allies, meanwhile, are playing up Sotomayor’s humble upbringing in the Bronx borough of New York, her studies at Princeton and Yale and her 17 years of experience on the federal bench – more than any sitting supreme court justice. “Hers is a success story in which all – all – Americans can take pride,” Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said today. “Let’s be fair to her and to the American people by not misrepresenting her views.”

In the coming days, Republicans are expected to grill Sotomayor about her views on abortion, the death penalty, same-sex marriage, the role of international law in American jurisprudence, and racial issues. They have signalled they will focus on speeches and public remarks in which she has expressed pride in her ethnic background and statements they say portend she will pursue a personal liberal agenda from the bench.