FILE -- In this July 16, 2009 file photo, President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the fourth day of her confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON - The Senate held a history-making debate Tuesday on confirming Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice, with Republican opponents asserting she would bring bias to the bench and Democratic supporters saying she was a mainstream moderate.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he will vote against Sotomayor.
"While I believe Judge Sotomayor is an impressive role model for millions of Americans, I take my responsibility as Nevada's senator very seriously and I feel I need to protect the sanctity of our Constitution," he said in a statement.
He said the judge has given no assurances she would protect the right to bear arms as a fundamental right, "a right I believe is central to the Constitution."
He joined other Republicans including Sen. John McCain of Arizona in saying he believes she would be an activist judge.
There was little doubt that President Barack Obama's first high court nominee would be confirmed with bipartisan support as early as Thursday, but senators lined up to weigh in on her fitness for the bench anyway, with an eye toward the history books, the nation's burgeoning Hispanic electorate and perhaps the next Supreme Court battle.
"Judge Sotomayor's journey to this nomination is truly an American story ... (and) a reminder to all of the continuing vitality of the American dream," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee chairman.
His opening remarks framed Sotomayor's confirmation as a step on the nation's still-evolving "path of inclusion" that began with the Bill of Rights and continued with the extension of voting rights to women and enactment of the civil and voting rights laws of the 1960s.
"She's a restrained, experienced and thoughtful judge who has shown no bias in her rulings," Leahy said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the panel's top Republican and his party's pointman on Sotomayor, called her a devotee of an approach that heeds "the seductive siren call of judicial activism" and is contrary to the "classical underpinnings" of the nation's legal system.
"Judge Sotomayor's expressed judicial philosophy rejects openly the ideal of impartial and objective judging. Instead, her philosophy embraces the impact that background, personal experience, sympathies, gender and prejudices - these are her words - have on judging," Sessions said.
Nearly three-quarters of GOP senators have lined up against Sotomayor, but a handful are siding with Democrats to support her.
Earlier in the day, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader, lamented the partisan split over Sotomayor.
"She's developed a 17-year record as a moderate, mainstream judge," he said. "I'm disappointed not more of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are likely to vote for this outstanding nominee."
Reid said he intends to bring the nomination to a vote before Congress recesses this weekend.
A done deal
Despite the groundbreaking nature of Sotomayor's impending addition to the court, the certainty of her confirmation was in so little doubt that senators began the debate as evening fell, speaking into the night to a virtually empty Senate chamber in a mostly deserted Capitol long after visiting tourists had departed and at an hour when few Americans were likely to be watching on television.
There was so little suspense that the subject didn't even come up at the White House when senators met Obama for lunch Tuesday to discuss their progress on the president's top priorities, including health care and climate change legislation.
"I mean, this is not even an issue," Leahy said of Sotomayor's confirmation as he returned from the midday gathering. "This one's done."
Sotomayor, 55, is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who was raised in a South Bronx housing project and educated in the Ivy League before going on to success in the legal profession and then the federal bench. Obama chose her to replace retiring Justice David Souter, a liberal named by a Republican president, and she's not expected to alter the court's ideological balance.
Some in the GOP have faced a tough call about how to vote on Obama's nominee, torn between an impulse to please their conservative base by opposing her and a fear that doing so could alienate Hispanic voters.
Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to claim a big victory with Sotomayor's confirmation. They planned a midday rally Wednesday on Capitol Hill with civil rights, minority and women's groups.