Sonia Sotomayor confirmation to the appeals court would put Sotomayor in a better position for a possible Supreme Court nomination (despite there being no vacancy at the time nor any indication the Clinton administration was considering nominating her or any Hispanic). Therefore, the Republican majority decided to slow her confirmation. Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh weighed in that Sotomayor was an ultraliberal who was on a "rocket ship" to the highest court. During her September 1997 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sotomayor parried strong questioning from some Republican members about mandatory sentencing, gay rights, and her level of respect for Supreme Court
Stereotypes of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States has implications for the overall educational journey of Hispanic and Latino students. Performing poorly on standardized tests could lead to limitations in the options available for furthering education. Another experimental study of Latino undergraduate students found that Latino students in the stereotype threat condition performed worse on an exam than all other students with which they were compared (Latino students in non-stereotype threat condition and White students in both stereotype threat and non-stereotype threat conditions). A study by Fischer (2009) found that Hispanic college students who internalize negative stereotypes about themselves tend to spend less hours studying, further decreasing their