Sonia Sotomayor Approved as Next Supreme Court Justice

The Senate voted 68 to 31 Thursday to approve Sonia Sotomayor as the next associate justice of the United States. Sotomayor will be the 111th justice, as well as the first Hispanic and third woman, to join the court. Fifty-seven Democrats, two Independents and nine Republicans voted to confirm Sotomayor.

Among the Republicans supporting Sotomayor were Maine's two female senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, as well as Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, George Voinovich of Ohio, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Mel Martinez of Florida and Kit Bond of Missouri. One Democrat, Sen. Ted Kennedy, was not present for the vote.

According to the White House, via P.D.'s Lynn Sweet, Sotomayor watched the Senate vote on television from her judge's chambers in New York City. The president will hold reception to congratulate Sotomayor at the White House on Wednesday.

The Senate vote came a little more than two months after the president announced in the East Room of the White House that he had chosen Sotomayor, calling her "an inspiring woman" who "brings a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court Justice."

Since then, Sotomayor met with 89 senators, answered an extensive committee questionnaire, broke her ankle at La Guardia Airport, sat through two days of congressional hearings before two more days of testimony from other witnesses, and sparked a national debate about "wise Latinas" and the role of a jurist's background in deciding cases from the bench.

More important than how Sotomayor got here, however, is where she's going now. She'll take the Constitutional Oath, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, at a private ceremony at the Supreme Court in Washington on Saturday morning. She'll then have a formal investiture ceremony with the full court on Sept. 8.

Although the court's session officially begins in October, the justices will sit for a special session on Sept. 9 to hear oral arguments in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a challenge to campaign finance laws.