The confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor begin today, in the wake of the reversal of Ricci in which none of Sotomayor’s future colleagues concurred with her reading of the law.  Republicans plan a robust attack on Sotomayor’s Ricci reasoning and a slew of statements that she has made over the last twenty years.  However, as ABC reports, Hispanic interest groups say they will watch the GOP “like hawks” for any hint of racism:

Latinos will be watching Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings “like hawks” for evidence that senators on the Judiciary Committee are mistreating the Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge, or are mischaracterizing her record, leaders of Latino political, professional and advocacy groups tell ABC News.

“We accept tough questions. But what we are going to object to are questions that misrepresent the judge or that distort her record,” says Estuardo V. Rodriguez, director of Hispanics for a Fair Judiciary. The nonpartisan umbrella organization includes the Hispanic National Bar Association, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn, R-Texas, said on “Fox News Sunday” that Sotomayor’s nomination won’t be blocked because Republicans don’t have the numbers. But she is expected to explain her 2001 comment that she hoped “a wise Latina” was more likely to reach better conclusions than a white male without comparable experiences.

Fair game, but for many Latino political groups the game is, and has been, on. Earlier this month when Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the top GOP lawmaker on the Judiciary Committee, called some of the decisions made by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) “extreme,” the Hispanic National Bar Association fired off a letter to this panel’s chair, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. The document expresses “deep dismay” and warns that this kind of “mischaracterization” by Sessions or others will not be tolerated. A similar letter was sent to the Alabama Republican.

No one expects otherwise.  Well, maybe one man does.  Miguel Estrada was nominated to the DC Appellate Court by George Bush in 2001, and got filibustered by Democrats in 2003.  The reason for their opposition was explicitly racist, as this memo to Senator Dick Durbin in 2001 shows:

Second, yesterday’s meeting focused on identifying the most controversial and/or vulnerable judicial nominees, and a strategy for targeting them.  The group singled out three — Jeffrey Sutton (6th Circuit); Priscilla Owen (5th Circuit); and Caroline Kuhl (9th Circuit) — as a potential nominee for a contentious hearing early next year, with an eye to voting him or her down in Committee.  They also identified Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) as especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment.  They want to hold off Estrada as long as possible.

Democrats explicitly opposed Estrada because he was Latino.  Do you remember the huge outcry this created from these Hispanic interest groups at the time this memo got revealed, and how they protested Democratic racism and bigotry?

Yeah, neither do I, and neither does Miguel Estrada.

Update: Meanwhile, People for the American Chicago Way organizes a smear campaign against Frank Ricci, and Slate obligingly delivers.