Hot-Button Issues Drive Questions for Sotomayor

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Sotomayor Refuses to Renounce 'Wise Latina' Word

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has refused to renounce her comment that a 'wise Latina' woman might be better positioned than a white man to make a wise court ruling.

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She recited portions of the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld a right to an abortion but allowed some restrictions so long as they don't place an "undue burden" on the woman's rights.

"The question is: Is the state regulation regulating what a woman does an undue burden?" Sotomayor said.

Approaching the issue from another direction, Coburn said a fetus born as early as 21 weeks might now be expected to survive because of advances in medicine. "Should that have any bearing as we look at the law?" he said.

"The law has answered a different question," Sotomayor said. "It's talked about the constitutional right of women . . . in certain circumstances. And as I indicated, the issue becomes one of, what's the state regulation in any particular circumstance?"

"I understand," Coburn said. "But all I'm asking is, should it have any bearing?"

"I can't answer that in the abstract," the nominee said.

Coburn's questioning at times seemed philosophical, as when he noted that a fetal heartbeat can be recorded at 14 days post-conception, and fetal brainwaves at 39 days.

"And I don't expect you to answer this, but I do expect you to pay attention to it as you contemplate these big issues . . . we have this schizophrenic rule of the law where we have defined death as the absence of those, but we refuse to define life as the presence of those," he said.

Senate Democrats attempted this morning to refute a charge lobbed yesterday by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) that Sotomayor has a "temperament problem" on the bench.

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), the first Democrat to question Sotomayor today, read into the record flattering assessments of her from an almanac containing profiles of federal judges: She is "frighteningly smart" and "intellectually tough," has "a very good common-sense approach to the law" and is "extremely hard working and well prepared," Cardin said.

But the "wise Latina" remarks and Sotomayor's ruling in the case involving the firefighters were never far from the surface. Among the spectators in the room were about 1o of the white New Haven firefighters who had claimed they were discriminated against in seeking promotions.

Cornyn, the first questioner of the day, dove immediately into the controversial remark she has delivered in a handful of speeches over a decade. Sotomayor said, as she did yesterday, that the comments were "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat."