**Sonia Sotomayor is due to be sworn in as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice in the US, after a summer of debate over her nomination.**Ms Sotomayor, 55, will become only the third woman to sit on the court.
On Thursday, the Senate voted 68-31 to approve her with 59 Democrats and nine Republicans voting in favour.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the US, with the power to strike down unconstitutional laws. Once appointed, justices serve for life.
They are nominated by the president, but must receive approval from a majority of senators before they can take up their post.
Ms Sotomayor will be sworn in twice by Chief Justice John Roberts in a Washington ceremony that will be the first one open to television cameras in the court’s history.
She will say one oath before a private ceremony at the high court, open only to members of her family, before Justice Roberts administers a second oath taken by judges, with reporters present.
RISE OF SONIA SOTOMAYOR
- 1954: Born in South Bronx to Puerto Rican parents
- Father died when she was aged nine and she was raised solely by her mother
- 1979: Graduates from Yale and serves as an assistant district attorney in New York County
- 1984: Moves into private practice, specialising in intellectual property
- 1991: George Bush Snr chooses her as a district judge
- 1997: Bill Clinton nominates her to the circuit court
Ms Sotomayor was born to poor Puerto Rican parents on a New York public housing project, rising to become a respected judicial scholar and judge.
Some Republicans had been critical of her record of speeches - and some rulings - saying they had revealed that she allowed her opinion to affect her decisions.
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she was asked repeatedly about a speech in which she had remarked that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion” than a white male judge.
Critics said the remark could have been perceived as racist, but Ms Sotomayor maintained the comments had been an attempted “play on words” that “fell flat”.