Senate Panel Backs Sotomayor

A key Senate panel has voted in favor of Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The majority-Democrat Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to back 55-year-old Ms. Sotomayor. Her nomination will now go to the full Senate, where she is expected to be confirmed as the court's first Hispanic justice in a historic vote next week. Her nomination has been vocally opposed by a chorus of Republicans who believe she is too liberal. But correspondents say Ms Sotomayor is unlikely to alter the ideological balance on the court as she is set to replace retiring Justice David Souter, a liberal.