Michael Ford, a St. Cloud lawyer who is president of the Minnesota State Bar Association, says U.S. Senate Republicans shouldn't block the Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court, according to the St. Cloud Times.

And Ford is a Republican who didn't vote for President Obama. Ford also has some concerns that Obama's Supreme Court nominee might favor the disadvantaged in legal issues rather than serve as a neutral umpire.

But he told the paper that bitter partisan fighting over court nominees has flawed Congress' role since Robert Bork was nominated but not confirmed to the Supreme Court.

"The concept of fighting tooth and nail over each federal judicial nominee has filtered down to the states, which has led directly to the current furor over the politicization of the state judiciary," Ford said.

Ford said he knew little about Sotomayor before her nomination Tuesday. What he's read about her since indicates she's capable of doing the work and should be confirmed, he said.

He also notes that the sitting president gets to pick who fills Supreme Court openings, and if Sotomayor ends up being the wrong person for the job Obama will pay the political price.

People have to accept that presidents "should do what they are hired to do," which is to make these types of key appointments with the Senate filling an "advise and consent" role rather than posturing along political lines, he told the paper.

"We ought to return the nomination process to that which I think the Founding Fathers originally intended," he said.