WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Kit Bond says he'll support Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, breaking with the vast majority of the GOP.
The retiring Missouri senator says he disagrees with some of Sotomayor's rulings and statements, but that she's a well-qualified jurist. He becomes the seventh Republican to publicly announce he will support President Barack Obama's first high court nominee.
Bond says that partisanship shouldn't drive decisions on judges.
Nearly three-quarters of the Senate's 40 Republicans have said they'll vote against Sotomayor, including all but one of the party's leaders. But with no Democrats expected to oppose her, she has more than enough support to be easily confirmed in a vote expected as early as Thursday.
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