Senators differ on how activist Sonia Sotomayor would be as member of Supreme Court bench

Sotomayor arrives for hearing

WASHINGTON — Sonia Sotomayor has arrived for her Senate Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

As the week of hearings begins, Republicans and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are renewing their debate over her qualifications to render justice impartially.

“She’s not far left. She’s not far right. She’s mainstream,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday.

But Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., countered that Sotomayor appeared to be “the typical liberal activist judge who will push the law, who believes in identity type politics and seeing people as groups more than individuals.”

Sotomayor, an appeals court judge who would be the first Hispanic justice — and only the third woman — made no comment as she arrived for her turn in the witness chair.