Justice Sotomayor's ideology

The NYT has an interesting article on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor who is now in her 5th year on the Court.  She has not disappointed her appointer, generally taking the liberal stance.  She took heat, but, but despite marginal qualifications, was still confirmed by the Democratic majority in the Senate in spite of her remark that
"“I would hope,” she said, “that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Of course, at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing she described the remark as a "rhetorical flourish."  Personally, I agree with the conservative National Review that her dissent in the recent "affirmative action" case was a "a case study in the moral and legal corrosion that inevitably results from elevating ethnic-identity politics over the law.” Linda Chavez, a New York Post columnist, said Justice Sotomayor was “unable to divorce her legal reasoning from her own sense of racial grievance.” (quote from NYT at link). We have too many cultural/ideological warriors on the Court and not enough "Justices."  IMHO, the Justice who comes closest to actually deciding cases on something other than ideology is Justice Kennedy. (see post below on ideology and First Amendment cases)