Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation as the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court, hailed as a historic moment by her supporters, may have little impact on the outcome of cases the justices will consider over the next year.

Sotomayor won approval on a 68-31 vote yesterday, with nine Republicans joining 59 Democrats in the majority. When she is sworn in tomorrow by Chief Justice John Roberts, she will become the second woman and third Democratic appointee serving on the nine-member court.

“A more diverse Supreme Court is a better Supreme Court,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, during the chamber’s debate on her yesterday.

Sotomayor, 55, was nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed the retired David Souter, whose positions she is likely to closely track based on her 17-year record as a trial and appellate judge. Souter supported abortion rights, affirmative action and strict church-state separation, and voted to limit constitutional protections for gun ownership and private property.

“She can be no worse than Souter from our point of view,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who supported Sotomayor even though he said he had misgivings about her views. “So there is not going to be a major shift in the balance of power here.”

First Test

Her first test will come in a campaign finance clash whose outcome probably is in the hands of former President George W. Bush’s two appointees, Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. The court is considering overturning a century-old ban on corporate political giving. Three other justices -- Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy -- have already said they would take that step.

The court will hear arguments in the case Sept. 9, holding an unusual second hearing in a dispute that originally had a narrower focus. The case concerns a documentary film critical of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Later in its 2009-10 term, the court will consider the ability of private citizens to sue over religious monuments on public property, determine the constitutionality of a government agency that oversees the accounting industry and consider whether youths can be sentenced to life in prison for crimes other than murder.

The court might also take up its first gun-rights case since declaring last year that the Constitution’s Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms. The National Rifle Association is now asking the court to apply the Second Amendment to states and cities as well as the federal government and District of Columbia.

Gun Rights

As a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, Sotomayor in January refused to extend the Second Amendment to the states. The opinion she joined said the Supreme Court alone should have “the prerogative of overruling its own decisions,” including an 1886 ruling that limits the Second Amendment to the federal government.

Republican senators who opposed Sotomayor pointed to that ruling as evidence that she would vote to eviscerate constitutional gun rights.

“Judge Sotomayor apparently does not believe that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is an individual right,” said Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas.

‘Subjective Realm’

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama said Sotomayor “has bluntly advocated a judicial philosophy where judges ground their decisions not in the objective rule of the law but in the subjective realm of personal opinions, sympathies and prejudices.”

Sotomayor, who grew up in a New York City housing project, attended Princeton University in New Jersey and Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, and worked as a prosecutor and corporate litigator. She was named as a federal trial judge by Republican President George H.W. Bush and elevated to the appeals court by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois called Republican opposition to Sotomayor “unfortunate because I don’t know that you could have asked for much more of a nominee to the Supreme Court.” He spoke in an interview taped for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing today.

Obama predicted yesterday at the White House that Sotomayor will become an “outstanding” justice.

“With this historic vote, the Senate has affirmed that Judge Sotomayor has the intellect, the temperament, the history, the integrity and the independence of mind to ably serve on our nation’s highest court,” Obama said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 7, 2009 00:01 EDT