Racism, Sonia Sotomayor | featured news

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor vigorously defended herself today against charges that her speeches and rulings show racial bias, telling a Senate panel vetting her nomination that critics had misunderstood her record.

The Alabama senator leading the Republican Party's vetting of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said the American tradition of impartial courts is "under attack" and the pivotal question in her nomination should be whether she allows personal views to color her decisions as a judge.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor dominated the sounds of Sunday, as you might expect on the weekend after the first African-American president announced his nomination of the first Latina woman for the nation's highest court.