Lauren Bell, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., who was a visiting fellow on the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, said that empirically it was true that Hispanic nominations took longer to get through the Republican-controlled Senate. "The Republicans said it wasn't about them being Hispanic, it was about them being activists," Bell said.

Nonetheless, the Hispanic National Bar Association and other groups undertook a major lobbying effort. Ramona Romero, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association, was head of the organization's District of Columbia affiliate at the time. "A group of the Hispanic leaders who are interested in a fair, diverse and independent judiciary took notice of the fact that the Senate was not performing its duty to advise and consent in a fair and appropriate way, and we did take notice and we did act on it," she said.

Their personal appeals and visits to senators attracted the attention of New York Republican Alfonse D'Amato -- who was up for reelection that year. In an interview this week, D'Amato said he appealed to Senate leaders to bring Sotomayor and other Hispanic nominees to a vote. "I really did push for it because she had strong support from the legal community as well as the Hispanic community," D'Amato said.