Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor delivered multiple speeches between 1994 and 2003 in which she suggested “a wise Latina woman” or “wise woman” judge might “reach a better conclusion” than a male judge.

Those speeches, released Thursday as part of Sotomayor’s responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s questionnaire, indicate that her widely quoted October 2001 speech at the University of California at Berkeley — in which she said she “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” — was far from a single, isolated instance.

A draft of an October 2003 speech at Seton Hall University read: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion.” She used those same words in her Berkeley remarks, which have been the subject of intense criticism by Republican senators and prompted conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to label her “racist.”

In addition, she delivered several earlier speeches in which she said “a wise woman” would reach a better decision. The first was in Puerto Rico in 1994; another came before the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York in April 1999.

Also, summary descriptions of speeches Sotomayor provided indicated she delivered remarks similar to those in the 1994 speech on three other occasions in 1999 and 2000 — twice at Yale and once at the City University of New York School of Law.

Her repeated use of “wise Latina woman” or “wise woman” would appear to undermine the Obama administration’s assertions that the statement was simply a poor choice of words.

After details of the 1994 speech circulated before the questionnaire’s release, John Cornyn , R-Texas, emerged from a meeting with Sotomayor with new concerns about the nominee’s “identity politics.”

“There will be more questions about that,” he said. “That was not an isolated statement.”

After meeting with the nominee on Thursday, Susan Collins , R-Maine, was asked about the 1994 and 2001 speeches and whether Sotomayor had said the 2001 comment was an isolated incident. “She told me that she had used the phrase before, but that she would not be using it again in the future, which does not surprise me,” Collins said. “She’s clearly a very bright individual who learns from her past mistakes.”

Asked whether Sotomayor’s defense of the 2001 speech had assuaged her concerns, Collins said: “I’m still uncomfortable that she made the statement, particularly as a sitting judge.”

But, she added, “I can understand her explanation that it was intended to be a statement to inspire the young people with whom she was talking and that it did not reflect how she approaches cases before her.”

A review of the dozens of speeches released by Sotomayor suggests that the meaning of her gender and ethnic identity, and how that set her apart, has been a frequent theme in recent years.

“In this society, in order to achieve its promise, it is critical to accept the fact that we people of color are different from the larger society, that we must work harder to overcome the problems our communities face and that we must work together as people of color to achieve changes,” Sotomayor said at the Hunts Point Multi-Service Center in September 1997.