The 68-31 vote confirming the new Justice fell along party lines, according to the New York Times. Justice Sotomayor's confirmation was cause for rejoicing today.

Despite the Times' clear bias -- they give quotes from Mitch McConnell high in the story and describe absent Sen. Edward Kennedy as "ailing" and "did not vote," the announcement that the opening in our nation's foremost judiciary panel has been filled produced positive reactions.

“Judge Sotomayor’s career and judicial record demonstrates that she has always followed the rule of law,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday. “Attempts at distorting that record by suggesting that her ethnicity or heritage will be the driving force in her decisions as a justice of the Supreme Court are demeaning to women and all communities of color.”

The tradition begun with Anita Hill appears to be continuing. A woman is inferior to a man, regardless of ethnicity or qualifications; it is an outrage to the sensibilities of such Senators as Orrin Hatch that a President would consider nominating a woman to be a United States Supreme Court justice, when just a few years ago the Senate refused to allow a Hispanic man to be elevated to a seat on the court.
Of course the GOP paints Justice Sotomayor as activist and liberal -- she follows the law, including the Constitution, which they regard as quaint at best and inconvenient at worst, and for which they hold no respect, since clearly its stipulations regarding egalitarianism don't apply to the brown, red, yellow, black, female, non-straight, or most importantly the unmonied.