US President Barack Obama's nominee to fill a vacancy on the US Supreme Court will today face more tough questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will make the final decision on her appointment.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been repeatedly asked about her ability to be objective in her decisions.
Republicans expressed concern that, in a speech in 2001, she had said a wise Latina woman would tend to make better judgments than a white man.
Judge Sotomayor told the committee it was an attempted rhetorical flourish that had not succeeded.
'I want to state up front, unequivocally and without doubt, I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judging,' she said.
Today will be Judge Sonia Sotomayor's third day of Senate grilling. Her confirmation as the first Hispanic on the US Supreme Court is virtually assured.
Yesterday, she denounced the World War II-era jailing of Japanese-Americans.
'It is inconceivable to me today that a decision permitting the detention and arrest of an individual solely on the basis of their race would be considered appropriate by our government,' she told the panel.
She declined to explicitly criticise former president George W Bush's actions after September 11, 2001 attacks, but said the strikes did not dent her belief in the need to protect individual rights.
She said the balance of security and individual rights was still a subject of a 'continuing discussion' in the US.
