Injury doesn't slow Sotomayor

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor hobbled through a packed day of meetings on Capitol Hill Monday after breaking her ankle in an early morning airport stumble, then boarding a flight from New York to Washington to visit senators who will vote on her confirmation.

The federal appeals court judge, who has been keeping a busy set of appointments with lawmakers, tripped while rushing for her plane at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The White House said she suffered a small fracture to her right ankle.

Sotomayor made the meetings with senators despite her injury. She entered the Capitol for a meeting with Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, on crutches, wearing a white cast covered at the foot with a black soft bootie. Asked how she was feeling, Sotomayor said, "I feel fine, thank you."

The injury changed the tone slightly on an otherwise high-intensity round of meetings that are part job interview for Sotomayor, part preview of a pressure-filled set of confirmation hearings.

Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., signed Sotomayor's cast during their session. Her fellow Louisianan, Republican Sen. David Vitter, had a bag of ice and a pillow on hand when the judge arrived at his office, telling her to "please be seated and relax."

"I hope you all note that some Republicans are empathetic, too," Vitter quipped to reporters. It was a humorous reference to President Barack Obama's remark that he wanted a Supreme Court justice with "the quality of empathy" — a concept that has been roundly criticized by conservatives who counter that personal feelings and experiences have no place in a judge's decisions.

Sotomayor chuckled at the comment. "Oh I'm so grateful. Thank you, sir," she told Vitter.

Still, Vitter emerged from the meeting saying he still had "very serious concerns" about Sotomayor, including her position on the Second Amendment that gives Americans gun rights and her much-discussed comment in a 2001 speech that she hoped a "wise Latina" would usually make better decisions than a white male without that experience.

Vitter said he questioned Sotomayor "at great length" about the remark, which she repeated with almost identical wording in at least two subsequent speeches, and which she had the chance to look over while preparing a written version that later appeared in a journal.

"I think that's very different from an offhand comment which was ill-advised in terms of wording," Vitter said.