Judge Sonia Sotomayor has won Senate approval to be appointed to the US Supreme Court.
The Democratic-led Senate voted largely along party lines, 68-31, to approve President Barack Obama's nomination of Ms Sotomayor for the lifetime appointment on the highest US court.
The large number of Republican "no" votes reflected the party's resistance to the Democratic president on several fronts including his bid to overhaul healthcare.
When sworn in, Ms Sotomayor (55), a federal appeals judge in New York since 1998, will be the first Hispanic and only the third woman to serve on the 220-year-old Supreme Court.
"Another barrier has been broken in American life," said Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who voted for Ms Sotomayor, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who was born in poverty.
Democrats hailed Ms Sotomayor as fair-minded but Republicans charged she lacked impartiality. Critics had zeroed in on her past comments that a "wise Latina" woman might reach a better decision than a white man.
At her confirmation hearing Ms Sotomayor, a federal judge for 17 years, offered no apology but said a jurist had to guard against internal prejudice.
In replacing retired Justice David Souter, Ms Sotomayor is not expected to change the court's ideological balance. Mr Souter sided with the liberal wing of the court, which in recent years often issued 5-4 rulings in favor of conservatives.
The appointment underscores an effort by Mr Obama, six months in office, to move the court to the left after eight years of rightward pushing by his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush.
Reuters