Go Sonia it's your Birthday

Global Grind - And She's In... Sotomayor Gets The #9 Spot

**UPDATE** Sonia Sotomayor has received enough votes to be confirmed as the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice Thursday, elevating the daughter of Puerto Rican parents after a summer-long debate filled with ethnic politics. She is the first justice nominated by a Democratic president in a decade and a half. The vote was 68 to 31. The Democrats' heavy majority ensured confirmation of President Barack Obama's first nominee, though many Republican senators were voting against her. GOP senators typically praised her personal story but said they were concerned that she would be too liberal and would rely on personal sympathies rather than legal precedents in her votes on the nation's highest court. The Senate's deep divisions over Sotomayor reflected partisan politics but also profound philosophical disagreements that will shape future battles over the court's makeup as Obama looks to another likely vacancy – perhaps more than one_ while he's in the White House. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., 91, the longest-serving senator, who has been in frail health, planned to make just his second return to the Senate since his release from the hospital in June to cast a historic vote for Sotomayor. ____________________________________________________________________________________

Sonia Sotomayor is poised to make history as the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice despite staunch opposition from Republicans who call her ill-suited for the bench, a pending victory for Democrats who believe her confirmation will pay off politically.

The Senate is ready to vote Thursday to confirm President Barack Obama's high court nominee, a 55-year-old appeals court judge of Puerto Rican descent who was raised in a New York City housing project, educated in the Ivy League and served 17 years on the federal bench.

Sotomayor picked up more GOP support Wednesday even as nearly three-quarters of the Senate's 40 Republicans said they would vote "no" and contended she would bring liberal bias and personal sympathies to her decisions. With all Democrats expected to back her, she has more than enough votes to be confirmed, barring a surprise turn of events, in one of the Senate's last actions before it breaks for the summer.

Democrats, praising her as a well-qualified judge and a mainstream moderate, are warning Republicans that they risk a backlash from Hispanic voters ? a growing part of the electorate ? if they oppose her. But Republicans bristle at the suggestion, noting that Democrats used extraordinary measures several years ago to block the confirmation of GOP-nominated Miguel Estrada, a Honduran-born attorney, to the federal bench.

GOP senators say their opposition to Sotomayor is based on her speeches and record, pointing to a few rulings in which they argue she showed disregard for gun rights, property rights and job discrimination claims by white employees. They also cite comments she's made about the role that a judge's background and perspective can play, especially a 2001 speech in which she said she hoped a "wise Latina" would usually make better decisions than a white man.