Washington ? Sonia Sotomayor has decided advantages as she begins the most important trial of her long legal career, a nationally televised consideration of her nomination to be the first Hispanic and just the third woman on the Supreme Court.

Starting today, she will tell her compelling up-from-poverty personal story to a jury tilted strongly in her favor — Democrats hold a comfortable majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a filibuster-resistant 60 votes in the Senate.

Still, Republicans signaled that they will press the 55-year-old New Yorker and veteran federal judge to explain past rulings involving discrimination complaints and gun rights, as well as comments that they say raise doubts about Sotomayor’s ability to judge cases fairly.

The sharpest comments about her so far came Sunday from Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the committee.

Sotomayor has said repeatedly in speeches over the past 10 years that personal experiences influence a judge’s decisions, Sessions said.

“She has criticized the idea that a woman and a man would reach the same result. She expects them to reach different results. I think that’s philosophically incompatible with the American system,” Sessions said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Her defenders have portrayed her as a meticulous judge who has strictly followed the law in her 17 years on the federal bench.

“In truth, we do not have to speculate about what kind of a justice she will be because we have seen the kind of judge she has been,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee chairman, said in excerpts of his opening statement provided to The Associated Press. “She is a judge in which all Americans can have confidence. She has been a judge for all Americans and will be a justice for all Americans.”