Sonia Sotomayor's Capitol Hill tour

by Mark Silva

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, among the top in her classes at Princeton and Yale Law, with nearly two decades on the federal bench and now poised to become the first Hispanic member of the nation's highest court, makes a Capitol Hill tour today.

In a round of private meetings with nearly a dozen senators, including the leaders of both parties and chairman and ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will conduct her confirmation hearings, the president's first nominee for the Supreme Court begins her ultimate job interview today.

The judge's calendar includes sessions with 10 senators, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and their chief lieutenants, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

She will drop in on Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as well as Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and also Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York Democrats from Sotomayor's home state.

They will have a chance, in private, to get beyond the public debate over Sotomayor's personal experience - the depth of legal experiences and breadth of life experiences which President Barack Obama has cited as her best credentials for the high court, as well as her own expressions of the meaning of those experiences - the wisdom of a Latina jurist relative to the experiences of the mostly male court which he has cited and which opponents have taken as a warning sign of "judicial activism.''

This could all become a ritualistic visit, however, with signs pointing toward a sure confirmation this summer, in time for the start of the court's fall term.