Obama names Sonia Sotomayor to US Supreme Court

Republican President George H.W. Bush named Sotomayor to a vacancy on the Federal District Court for Southern Manhattan in 1992, at the urging of the conservative Democratic senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. President Bill Clinton named her to a vacancy on the Second US Circuit Court of Appeal in 1997, and she was confirmed 67-29 by a Republican-controlled Senate in 1998 after some delaying tactics.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Orrin Hatch of Utah, voted for Sotomayor in 1998. Now the ranking minority member of the committee, Hatch is expected to vote for her again. In all, nearly half the Senate Republicans approved her nomination in 1998, making it difficult for them to argue that her subsequent 11 years on the appeals court have now rendered her unqualified.

Nothing in Sotomayor's legal record suggests that she will be anything more than a more or less interchangeable replacement for outgoing Justice Souter, who was also a nominee of George H.W. Bush.