How do you know people including Sonya Sotomayor certainly read and understood the cases? So often they say things about such cases that don't square with the record, suggesting that they didn't.
You seem focused on identities instead of content. Republican? Democratic? These are aruments rooted in fact and legal theory, not political stances.
Majority? Minority? The only relevance those groupings have is that one argument was less compelling... and sometimes the reason an argument isn't compelling is because it's simply bad.
Forget sides. Look at the reasoning.