Sotomayor nomination before full Senate

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Debate on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court began Tuesday with the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman saying she is fair.

Sotomayor is restrained in her opinions, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said, adding "she has administered justice without favoring one group over another."

Only a simple majority is needed to confirm Sotomayor to the nation's highest bench to succeed Justice David Souter, who retired.

Leahy chided Republicans who have said Sotomayor, a U.S. appeals court judge, is an activist judge who would not be restrained in her opinions, saying some on the current Supreme Court "is anything but modest and restrained."

"No one has pointed to (her) decisions that evidenced bias ... or her asserting her own personal preferences ... because that doesn't exist," he said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the committee's Republican leader, said he couldn't say how Sotomayor would perform if confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Sessions said he believed Sotomayor has a "fully formed judicial philosophy ... contrary to the classical underpinnings of the American legal system."

"American people are not cynics who settle for less than the ideal of impartiality and equal justice ... and that each judge operates under the constitution and the laws of this country," Sessions said in arguing against her confirmation.

If confirmed, Sotomayor would be the third woman and the first Hispanic to sit on the court.