Debate: Should Sotomayor Be Confirmed?

On this week's installment of CBSNews.com's "Washington Unplugged," Cleta Mitchell, Co-Chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association, said it is important that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor be asked "a lot of hard questions" during her Senate confirmation hearings.

"We all applaud this wonderful American success story that she represents. That's not the issue," she told host Bob Schieffer. "The issue is her judicial temperament. Does she possess biases that would make her not a good justice? And those are the things that the hearing should explore and determine."

Mitchell later referenced the New Haven firefighters case and asked whether Sotomayor is someone prone to "pre-judge because a white male doesn't have the background that others would have."

Schieffer asked Nan Aaron, President of the pro-Sotomayor Alliance For Justice, about this comment from Sotomayor: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." The statement prompted charges of racism from Rush Limbaugh and others. (Read Liz Cheney's response here>.)

"For the most part, you want a Supreme Court that is filled with judges from different backgrounds that represent different viewpoints and bring their own experiences to the process of decision making, and the fact that she is a Latina I think enables her to bring that different viewpoint," said Aaron. "And I think it's a little bit silly of people to say that when you're nominated for a judgeship and become a judge that you don't bring those experiences. Of course you do."

Watch the full, wide-ranging discussion below: