WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sonia Sotomayor faced tough questioning Tuesday on political issues and controversial statements from her past, with both Democrats and Republicans saying she responded well and appeared certain to win confirmation as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
The 55-year-old federal appeals judge conceded she made a bad play on words in saying in 2001 that a "wise Latina woman" could reach a better conclusion than a white man.
Otherwise, her calm answers to questions by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a wide range of issues - abortion, gun control, presidential powers, the death penalty - displayed a command of legal concepts that impressed her harshest interrogators.
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