When the Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor to sit on the 2nd Circuit back in 1998, 29 Republicans voted AGAINST her -- including current Sens. Grassley, Hutchison, Kyl, McCain, McConnell, and Sessions (the latter of whom is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee). But 23 Republicans also voted FOR her -- including current Sens. Collins, Gregg, Hatch, Lugar, Snowe, and Specter (the latter of whom is now a Democrat).
On the recommendation of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moniyhan, Sotomayor was nominated by President George H.W. Bush on November 27, 1991, to a seat on the Southern District of New York vacated by John Walker as Walker assumed senior status. Sotomayor was confirmed by the US Senate on August 11, 1992 on unanimous consent of the Senate and received commission on August 12, 1992. When she joined the court, she was its youngest judge.
Sotomayor left the Southern District of New York on October 13, 1998 due to her appointment to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
On the recommendation of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moniyhan, Sotomayor was nominated by President Bill Clinton on June 25, 1997 to a seat vacated by Daniel Mahoney. Sotomayor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 2, 1998 on a super majority 67-29-2 vote, receiving her commission on October 7, 1998.
In February 2009, in an article Esquire magazine, she was described as a one-of-a-kind nominee who "would slay two of the court's lack-of-diversity birds with one swift stone."