President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor defended one of her most controversial statements today, saying she never meant to imply that a Hispanic woman would make a better judge than a white man.
Ms Sotomayor, poised to become the first Hispanic justice on the top US court, came in for sharp questions as the Senate Judiciary Committee sought her views on everything from race to abortion to antitrust law.
Democrats call Mr Obama's decision to nominate Ms Sotomayor historic, and have emphasised her long career as a prosecutor and appeals court judge. But Republicans have focused on charges that she may show racial bias in her decisions.
Republicans have drawn ammunition from a 2001 speech she gave in which she said a "wise Latina" might arrive at a better legal decision than a white man, as well as an appeals court decision she made upholding the right of a city to discard firefighter test results which did not produce enough minority candidates.
Offered the chance to explain the "wise Latina" comments at her confirmation hearing, Ms Sotomayor said she had been misconstrued and that she was merely hoping to inspire young Hispanics and women to get involved with the law.
"I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judgment," she said, adding that she believed every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge "regardless of their background and life experience".
Most observers say Ms Sotomayor's elevation to a lifetime appointment on the nine-member Supreme Court is all but assured. But she faced tough Republican questioning, particularly on the firefighters case where her appeals court decision was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court.
"We were following precedent," she said of her ruling on the case, allowing New Haven, Connecticut to junk a promotion exam because it yielded too few qualified black candidates.
Ms Sotomayor said the Supreme Court's move to overrule her provided the legal framework for "how to look at this question in the future" and defended herself against criticism that she might allow any personal biases to influence legal decisions.
"My record shows that at no point or time have I ever permitted my personal views or sympathies to influence an outcome of a case," she said.
Democrats who control the Senate say Ms Sotomayor has both the legal expertise and the life experience to serve on the court, which has been closely divided with four liberal and five conservative members.
That balance would be maintained if she is confirmed as she would replace retiring Justice David Souter, who is also a liberal.
"I suspect she will be confirmed and I'm convinced it won't be a party line vote," Senator Patrick Leahy, the committee chair, said after the morning's proceedings.
"This shouldn't be a case of playing gotcha or taking speeches out of context this should be a case of letting the American people know who this person is," he said.
Ms Sotomayor faced questions on a range of other hot-button issues, many of which have proved politically divisive in US society.
Asked about gun rights, she said she accepted a Supreme Court ruling last year guaranteeing an individual's right to own guns and said she would keep "an open mind" on the gun rights issue. "I would not prejudge any question that came before me if I was a justice on the Supreme Court," she said.
She also said she recognised the continued need in some cases for affirmative action, or racial preference, policies to redress past racial injustices in the United States. However, she said she hoped this would not always be the case.
"It is firmly my hope....that in 25 years race in our society won't be needed to be considered in any situation. That's the hope," she said.
Quizzed on her attitude toward antitrust cases, she said she rejected suggestions that she could be seen as either pro-business or anti-business.
She also said that she accepted as "settled" the current US law permitting abortion, and indicated that she might be open to the idea of permitting Supreme Court hearings to be broadcast on television.
The ranking Republican on the committee, Senator Jeff Sessions, pressed Sotomayor hard on the question of possible bias, asking her if she believed - as he put it - that "impartiality is a mere aspiration which may not be possible in all or even most cases".
Ms Sotomayor repeatedly denied she would allow her life experience to govern her judicial rulings, saying that while experience is important, the law took precedence.
"I believe my record of 17 years demonstrates fully that I do believe that judges must apply the law and not make the law," she said.
Reuters