In her first oral argument session since joining the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor signaled today that she does not agree that corporations should be allowed a freer hand to spend money to influence elections.

The case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, started as a non-profit corporation's challenge to restrictions in the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign law to "electioneering conmunications" paid for out of corporate or union general treasury funds within 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election. Before Sotomayor joined the court, it broadened the case to consider whether to overturn two major campaign finance precedents.

Sotomayor sat quietly through almost a third of the session, before asking former Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson whether the plaintiff's side was "giving up on your earlier arguments" that the court could rule for the plaintiff without overturning the precedents.

Sotomayor said that a "difficulty" she had was that "we don't have any record developed below" on the question of voiding the precedents.

Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez did not mention Republican criticism of confirmed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor during a brief press conference in Orlando.

"There's no impending reason, it's only my desire to move on and to get on with the rest of my life," Martinez said, referring to his surprise announcement Friday that he will resign his Senate seat probably before the end of August.

The GOP's 2008 presidential nominee, John McCain, announced Monday that he will vote against Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

McCain, who wanted to be the one doing the nominating, said he could not support "activist judges" in outlining his opposition in a Senate floor speech.

"I cannot support activist judges that seek to legislate from the bench," McCain said. "I have not supported such nominees in the past, and I cannot support such a nominee to the highest court in the land."

As expected, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 13-6, today to send the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation.

South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham joined all 12 Democrats on the panel to support Sotomayor's nomination. The full Senate is expected to take up the nomination the week of Aug. 3, and confirm Sotomayor before its August recess.

For the first time in his 32-year Senate career, Utah Republican Orrin G. Hatch said he "reluctantly" and "with a heavy heart" intends to vote against a Supreme Court nominee and will oppose the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.

Hatch has deferred to presidents of both parties when it comes to Supreme Court nominees, but has said repeatedly since Sotomayor's confirmation hearing ended on July 16 that he was having trouble making up his mind.

In a statement, Hatch said "arriving at a final decision was particularly difficult because I like and highly respect Judge Sotomayor and, in general, give a great deal of deference to any President's nominee." But he added, "However, after thoroughly reviewing Judge Sotomayor's record and being able to hear her testimony and responses during the hearing process, I reluctantly, and with a heavy heart, have found that I cannot support her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court."

How senators vote on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court will be taken into account when the National Rifle Association calculates its ratings of their performance.

The NRA had already come out against Sotomayor last week but announced in a July 23 letter to Senate leaders the organization plans to count votes in her favor against senators.

"Given the importance of this issue, the vote on Judge Sotomayor's confirmation will be considered in NRA's future candidate evaluations," wrote Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president and Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is expected to announce his vote on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on the Senate floor later today.

Graham, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, could be the first GOP committee member to endorse Sotomayor.

The only other Republican on the panel to have taken a position so far is Jon Kyl of Arizona, who will oppose Sotomayor. Kyl leaked his position to ABC News' Jan Crawford Greenburg.

Graham is expected to speak soon.

As expected, the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court for a week after panel Republicans on Tuesday sought a delay.

Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said he was "disappointed" Republicans claimed their right under committee rules to hold over the vote. Republicans had been expected to seek a delay.

"We all know Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed," Leahy said, later noting that "she will be on the Supreme Court when the Supreme Court comes back in September."

Nealy 11 hours into its fourth day, Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing has concluded.

The 19-member Judiciary Committee conducted three rounds of questions of Sotomayor over three days and heard from more than two dozen outside witnesses when Ted Kaufman, D-Del., gaveled the proceedings to a close just after 8 p.m.

Just a smattering of audience members and reporters remained in the once-packed hearing room.

Sotomayor's hearing was a day shorter than the last Supreme Court nominee, Samuel A. Alito Jr., in January of 2006.

The committee could vote on Sotomayor's nomination as soon as next week.

If he's flipping channels tonight and stops on C-SPAN, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. might be surprised to see his successor - and former chief of staff - Ted Kaufman presiding over the Judiciary Committee.

Kaufman, who was appointed to replace Biden when he became vice president, took the gavel during the fifth and final panel of outside witnesses called to testify at Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing.

Biden chaired the Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995. His stewardship probably is best remembered for his handling of the 1991 nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy is quite the shutterbug, and he didn't miss the opportunity to capture on film the first Supreme Court nomination hearing over which he has presided.

Leahy, D-Vt., is displaying four photos on his Web site that he took during the second day of Sonia Sotormayor's confirmation hearing.

The Judiciary chairman is an avid photographer who displays his photos in his office. He's also been known to snap a picture using a camera belonging to one of the professional photographers who inhabit the Capitol.

The National Rifle Association formally opposes Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor has faced intense questioning from Republicans about her views on gun rights and, specifically, an appellate court ruling she participated in earlier this year. Critics said the ruling in Maloney v. Cuomo effectively dictates that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states.

Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions' attempt to shorthand a pledge to address equalizing federal sentencing for offenses involving different types of cocaine prompted heavy laughter at Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing.

"We're going to do that crack cocaine thing that you and I have talked about before," Sessions promised Wade Henderson, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, during his testimony in favor of Sotomayor's confirmation.

"We got to," Sessions continued, before being cut off by uproarious laughter.

With the end of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing in sight, the jockeying over when the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on her nomination has begun.

Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., announced earlier today he was scheduling the vote for next Tuesday, July 21. But the top-ranking Republican, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, told reporters that would be too soon. The committee allows members to request a one-week delay in any scheduled action. So a short time ago, Leahy offered a compromise: he'll postpone the vote until next Wednesday or Thursday if Republicans agree not to impose a full week's delay.

Leahy said the idea of delaying the vote a day or two rather than by a week came from a Republican, former Judiciary Chairman Orrin G. Hatch of Utah.

--Keith Perine contributed to this post.

Linda Chavez, a conservative Republican, leveled the harshest criticism yet against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

"I testify today not as a wise Latina woman, but as an American who believes that skin color and national origin should not determine who gets a job, promotion or public contract, or who gets into college or receives a scholarship," said Chavez, testifying this afternoon as one of 14 outside witnesses invited by Republicans.

Chavez, chairwoman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, said Sotomayor's "wise Latina," comment "comes very close to arguing for" racial quotas and suggested that any white man who made a similar comment would never be considered for a Supreme Court seat.

Frank Ricci, a New Haven, Conn., firefighter who lost a reverse discrimination claim, testified this afternoon that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's participation in the case failed to protect his civil rights.

At issue is the ruling of a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that included Sotomayor. The panel rejected the firefighters' claim that the city of New Haven illegally threw out the results of a promotion exam on which minority candidates received disproportionately low scores.

Ricci's testimony against Sotomayor's nomination has been anticipated by Republican opponents. Ricci, who overcame dyslexia and scored high on the exam, said the issue was broader than just his situation because "firefighters across the country have had to resort to the federal courts to vindicate their civil rights."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave Sonia Sotomayor's nomination a strong endorsement this afternoon, invoking his own political background to argue that the nominee "should be supported by Republicans, Democrats and Independents."

"And I should know because I've been all three," said the mayor, an Independent who left the Republican Party in June 2007 amid speculation he was considering a presidential run. Bloomberg, who testified before the Judiciary Committee this afternoon, was a registered Democrat before he switched to the GOP to run for mayor in 2001.

Bloomberg said he recommended Sotomayor to President Obama three months ago during a White House visit to discuss infrastructure policy.

Sonia Sotomayor has completed three rounds of questioning from members of the Judiciary Committee, which is now hearing from five panels of outside witnesses testifying for and against the Supreme Court nominee.

Sotomayor left Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building shortly before 1:30 p.m. after four-days of grilling and testimony.

Each of the 31 witnesses will be given five minutes in which to make a statement. Senators also will be given time to question those witnesses.

Al Franken seems to evoke laughter when he's not even trying, or not trying too hard.

People expect the former comedian to crack a joke and that was certainly the case today when the newly minted Minnesota Democratic senator took his second turn questioning Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the newest member of the Judiciary Committee.

At one point, Sotomayor asked Franken if she could tell him a story after Franken had thrown her a softball asking why she wanted to be a Supreme Court justice. Franken responded, "I would love it."

Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn asserted that his western upbringing gave him a different perspective on gun ownership than Bronx-born Sonia Sotormayor - and prompted a rebuttal from Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy.

"You were raised in the Bronx," Coburn said. "I was born in Wyoming and raised in Oklahoma. They're really - geographically and culturally - different areas. And so I want you to understand why I'm spending so much time talking with you about the Second Amendment. My constituents in Oklahoma understand, as do most Americans, that the right to own guns hangs in the balance."

Leahy, a gun owner since his teenage years, noted that both Wyoming and Oklahoma have more restrictive gun laws than his home state of Vermont, adding, "I have not heard anything or read anything in the judge's writings or speeches that would indicate to me that in any way I have to worry that Vermont gun owners -- and many Vermonters are gun owners."

Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has granted Republicans' request for a third round of questioning of Sonia Sotomayor.

Few, if any, Democrats, are likely to participate in the third round, which will last up to 10 minutes per senator.

Leahy said the third round would be "primarily on the Republican side," adding that he would use his time - as needed - to rebut GOP criticisms. Ranking Republican Jeff Sessions launched the third round of questions, asking Sotomayor whether she was content to live on the salary paid to Supreme Court justices or would seek a pay raise.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., has scheduled a committee vote on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court for July 21, he said today.

Given the committees rules, that schedule effectively means the Judiciary Committee will vote on the nomination of the first Hispanic woman to the high court no later than July 28.

Judiciary Committee rules stipulate that "a bill, matter, or nomination on the agenda of the committee may be held over until the next meeting of the committee or for one week, whichever occurs later" at the request of "any member, or by action of the chairman."

Texas Republican John Cornyn asked Sonia Sotomayor whether a hypothetical Supreme Court ruling recognizing a Constitutional right to same-sex marriage would represent the court making law or interpreting it.

As she has done all week, Sotomayor effectively dodged the question, characterizing the query as "so embedded with its answer" that it would be inappropriate for her to respond, particularly because same-sex marriage is "being hotly debated on every level of our three branches of government."

"This is the type of situation where even the characterizing of whatever the court may do as one way or another suggests that I have both prejudged an issue and that I come to that issue with my own personal views suggesting an outcome," she said. "And neither is true. I would look at that issue in the context of the case that came before me with a completely open mind."

Lindsey Graham told Sonia Sotomayor that she has "said some things that just bugged the hell out of" the South Carolina Republican but added later that her testimony had been "very reassuring" on the point of whether she understood and respected the difference between her personal beliefs and her judicial approach.

Sonia Sotomayor and Lindsey Graham during a break in the hearings. (Getty Images/Mark Wilson)

The plain-spoken Republican said Sotomayor's speeches "suggested gender and racial affiliations" that raise his concern.

With the clock ticking on Judiciary Republicans' time to question Sonia Sotomayor, Minority Whip Jon Kyl had little patience this morning for her measured, careful answers that he contended failed to answer his question.

John Kyl (Getty Images/AFP/Karen Bleier)

"Let me just interrupt here," Kyl said after asking the question for the first time, noting that he had only 20 minutes to question the nominee.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy kicked off the fourth day of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing by thanking the nominee and members of his committee for enduring a more drawn-out process than that of the two other most-recent Supreme Court nominees.

(Getty Images/Alex Wong)

"You seem to have weathered it well, and I hope the senators have, too," Leahy said.

The second round of questioning, in which each senator is allowed 20 minutes to make inquiries of the nominee, is expected to wrap up today, after which the committee will hear from outside witnesses.

The Judiciary Committee has been breaking at about 5:30 p.m. each day, earlier than it recessed during the Roberts and Alito hearings.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has recessed for the day, and will pick up at 9:30 a.m. Thursday with 12 senators still in line to ask questions of Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor's questioning is expected to conclude Thursday, at which time the panel will begin to hear from up to 31 outside witnesses.

Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in a reverse discrimination lawsuit that Sotomayor rejected; David Cone, a former Major League Baseball player; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; former FBI Director Louis Freeh; and two House Democrats, José E. Serrano and Nydia M. Velázquez, are among those slated to testify.

Russ Feingold sought - but did not get - assurances from Sonia Sotomayor that she would protect from erosion the 2002 landmark campaign finance law that bears his name.

Feingold, D-Wis., said he had "very deep concern about where the Supreme Court may be headed" in the area of campaign finance law.

The high court is slated to hear a new round of arguments in September in a closely watched case about how nonprofits can weigh in during political campaigns, and has signaled that it might broaden the case to cover print advertising in addition to TV programming.

If ranking Republican Jeff Sessions is any indication, Republicans are likely to reprise the same criticisms of Sonia Sotomayor during their second round of questioning as they leveled against her during the first round.

Sessions grilled Sotomayor anew about her "wise Latina" comment, her interpretation of judicial activism, her record on gun rights issues and her ties to a Latino legal advocacy group - all topics Republican senators have asked Sotomayor about already. Sessions was the first Republican to take a second turn tangling rhetorically with Sotomayor.

Sotomayor gave many of the same answers, reiterating that her "wise Latina" comment was a "bad" choice of words.

It's the seventh hour of the third day of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, and the senators are getting a little loopy.

Shortly after the panel reconvened following a closed-door session this afternoon, Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., briefly swapped seats with the panel's most-junior member, Minnesota Democrat Al Franken.

Franken, who has been a member of the Senate for nine days, offered his seat to the chairman because the microphone at Leahy's seat was not working, prompting a moment of levity during the weighty proceedings.

So far, Democrats actually have the edge over Republicans in terms of asking Sonia Sotomayor substantive questions about her judicial views on abortion.

Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania on Wednesday afternoon became the second Democrat to raise the abortion issue with the nominee. Wisconsin's Herb Kohl also did so on Tuesday.

Republicans, meanwhile, have largely steered clear of the issue.

Nothing like a Supreme Court confirmation hearing to start your Senate career with a bang.

Al Franken (Getty Images/AFP/Karen Bleier)

Franken at one point even displayed a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution, from which he read the 15th amendment out loud.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter said his former Republican colleagues have made a "mountain out of a mole hill" about Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment.

Specter, who would have been the committee's ranking Republican had he not left the Republican Party in April to seek re-election as a Democrat, added that criticisms of Sotomayor based on the idea that she would be an empathetic justice also were ill-founded.

But Specter, who chaired the Judiciary Committee in the 109th Congress during the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., was as apt as the Republican senators to interrupt Sotomayor. Specter cut her off several times during his questioning to ask another question and redirect her toward his inquiry.

Things are heating up in Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, literally if not figuratively.

The air conditioning for Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building broke down shortly after noon. Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., noted that the break down "will probably come as welcome news to some members of the press who are freezing" but was "not welcome news" on the dais, where the senators are sitting under hot television lights.

The large Hart hearing room - which includes skyboxes for broadcast journalists - became the site of Supreme Court hearings because of its television-friendly facilities. The first televised Supreme Court confirmation hearing was Sandra Day O'Connor's, in 1981. O'Connor, now retired from the court, credits television with coarsening the hearing process.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar drew on her own experience as a prosecutor to probe Sonia Sotomayor's record as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

The friendly questioning from the Minnesota Democrat, who was Hennepin County attorney from 1999 to 2007, was designed to showcase Sotomayor's background as a prosecutor and her criminal law expertise.

Sotomayor, who said she was inspired to become a lawyer in part by watching a television character, defense attorney Perry Mason, win dazzling acquittals of clients charged with murder, offered examples from her prosecutorial career of how she decided which charges to bring against defendants.

The nominee said she tried to view cases from a judge's perspective. She recalled a larceny case that she asked to have dismissed after delving deeper and determining that the defendant had not stolen the victim's purse.

Sonia Sotomayor can breathe easier.

Now that the least-senior Judiciary Committee Republican - Oklahoma's Tom Coburn - has finished his first found of questions and the committee's brief break is over, the Supreme Court nominee is fielding questions from five Democrats and will continue to do so for almost two hours before taking one in an open hearing from a Republican.

Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island praised the nominee effusively in his 30 minutes before the committee took a brief break.

Sonia Sotomayor dodged a series of questions from Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn - a practicing obstetrician - about how she would view abortion-related cases if she is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor repeatedly said she could not answer his questions because they were too hypothetical and the issue could come before the high court, both well-worn, familiar escape hatches for Supreme Court nominees.

Among the questions Coburn, one of six non-lawyers on the committee and its only medical doctor, asked Sotomayor was whether it would be legal for a woman to end a pregnancy at 38 weeks if she discovered a birth defect such as spina bifida.

"I can't look at it as an abstract without knowing what state laws exist on the issue," Sotomayor said, adding that even if she knew the specifics, she could not answer the question because the issue could come before court

Five abortion protesters have disrupted this week's hearings.

--Seth Stern contributed to this post.

The first Democrat to question Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor this morning batted cleanup on the question of judicial temperament raised by Republicans and invited the nominee to attend a Baltimore Orioles game.

Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland recited the positive attributes that unidentified lawyers assigned to Sotomayor in comments to the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, which profiles sitting judges.

Reading off a list, Cardin ticked off a slew of positive traits including "bright," a "good judge" "frighteningly smart, "tough," "exceptional judge" and "well prepared." Cardin was rebutting the negative views about Sotomayor's temperament that other unidentified lawyers gave the almanac and that were quoted by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Tuesday.

Quoting form the current issue of the almanac, Graham said Tuesday that lawyers warned that Sotomayor is a "terror on the bench." He said the comments make Sotomayor stick out "like a sore thumb in terms of judicial temperament."

Cardin invited Sotomayor, a New York Yankees fan, to attend a Baltimore Orioles baseball game, telling her that she is "a hero to Baltimore baseball fans" because of a 1995 ruling that helped end a Major League Baseball players' strike, paving the way for Cal Ripken to surpass Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive Major League baseball games played.

"It won't be when the Yankees are playing so you can root for the Orioles," Cardin said.

He might be head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but he made clear Wednesday that he would not lead a charge to filibuster Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn of Texas was the first senator to question Sotomayor on the third day of her confirmation hearings and began his inquiries by telling the nominee that he was pleased these proceedings had not gotten as "downright nasty and contentious" as some previous hearing.

Cornyn, the only former judge on the 19-member panel, said it was "a great tragedy" that the treatment of past nominees have dissuaded some people from serving on the federal bench.

Roughly a dozen New Haven, Conn., firefighters arrived in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building to join the audience for the third day of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.

New Haven, Conn. firefighters file into hearing room on third day of confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor. ((Getty Images/AFP / Karen Bleier)

In a 5-4 decision in the Ricci v. DeStefano case, the Supreme Court found in June that a three-judge 2nd Circuit panel, which included Sotomayor, was wrong to affirm a U.S. District Court decision that threw out the reverse discrimination case brought by a group of mostly white firefighters. Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff the case, and fellow New Haven firefighter Ben Vargas are among the 31 witnesses scheduled to testify at the confirmation hearings.

Republican Lindsey Graham says he likes Sonia Sotomayor, and may vote for her confirmation. But he wishes she would be a little nicer and not beat up lawyers.

Lindsey Graham (Getty Images/Alex Wong)

"I can only explain what I'm doing, which is when I ask lawyers tough questions, it's to give them an opportunity to explain their positions . . . and to persuade me that they're right," Sotomayer said. She added that attorneys are peppered with questions by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where she now sits, and call it a "hot bench."

The Senate Judiciary Committee has adjourned for the day, and is slated to reconvene at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday to resume consideration of Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

The hearing broke after questioning from Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., leaving eight senators still waiting to ask questions as part of the initial round, in which each senator is allotted 30 minutes. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas is up next.

The panel is expected to go behind closed doors Wednesday at the conclusion of the first round of questions to consider the results of an FBI investigation into Sotomayor prior to the start of the second round of questions, which will last up to 20 minutes per senator.

Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., encouraged committee members to "try to ask at least something new" during the second round of questioning to "keep up the interest" in the hearing. Leahy also urged members to yield back time if they can.

But ranking Republican Jeff Sessions predicted that "most members will want to use those 20 minutes."

Minority Whip Jon Kyl returned to the "Wise Latina" comment this afternoon, launching a persistent line of questioning about Sotomayor's commitment to impartiality from the bench. Sotomayor had offered an explanation about the comment at the morning session.

Jon Kyl (Getty Images/Mark Wilson)

"The words I chose, taking the rhetorical flourish, it was a bad idea," Sotomayor said. "I do understand that there are some who have read this differently, and I understand why they might have concern."

Lindsey Graham (Getty Images/Mark Wilson)

"Don't become a speechwriter if this law thing doesn't work out," Graham said.

With his quip, Graham stressed a point made by several of his Republican colleagues and it is that Sotomayor's speeches, not her legal opinions, raise concerns about her impartiality.

The plain-spoken Graham, who on Monday predicted that Sotomayor would get confirmed absent an unlikely "complete meltdown," suggested that the nominee was portraying her judicial philosophy differently during her confirmation hearings than what her 17-year record on federal bench would suggest.

"I listen to you today, and I think I'm listening to Judge [John G.] Roberts [Jr.]," Graham said, referring to the Supreme Court chief justice. He added that Sotomayor was casting herself in her confirmation hearings as a strict constructionist in Roberts' mold.

"Who are we getting here?" Graham asked. "Who are we getting as a nation?"

Sonia Sotomayor has said she would recuse herself if a contentious Second Amendment case upon which she ruled in January as an appellate judge were to come before the Supreme Court.

But it's not so clear what the nominee would do if she were called upon to consider similar cases as a justice.

During the most contentious series of questions posed so far by a Republican, Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona asked Sotomayor if she would "be willing to make an unequivocal commitment" that she would recuse herself if the court decided to hear Maloney v. Cuomo, along with two other pending Second Amendment cases that raise similar legal issues - one in the 9th Circuit and the other in the 7th Circuit.

But the nominee was not ready to oblige.

"It's impossible to say," Sotomayor said, adding that she "would have to wait to see what happens."

Dianne Feinstein (Getty Images/AFP/Karen Bleier)

Dianne Feinstein of California tried to get the nominee to weigh in against presidential "signing statements" that have infuriated lawmakers since Bush began using them to serve notice his administration would disregard portions of newly enacted laws considered unconstitutional infringements of executive prerogatives. President Obama also has issued a few, after criticizing Bush for the practice during last year's campaign.

Are signing statements constitutional? Feinstein asked the nominee. "It's a very broad question," said the judge.

"It's one that we are grappling with," the senator continued.

"And that's why I have to be very cautious in answering it," Sotomayor responded.

Russ Feingold pressed harder than any other senator - Republican or Democrat - to nail down Sonia Sotomayor's views on the limits on executive power and the question of whether the constitutional right to bear arms applies to state law.

Russ Feingold flanked by Dianne Feinstein and Charles Schumer. (Getty Images/AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

But Sotomayor declined to offer specifics - at least on the topic of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, saying the issue could come before the Supreme Court and for that reason it would be inappropriate for her to delve too deeply into that topic.

An abortion protester disrupted Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings for the second day in a row shortly after the committee reconvened following a lunch break, prompting one of the few amusing quips from a Judiciary Committee member.

The white male protester prompted audible gasps from startled audience members when he jumped up from his seat toward the back of the hearing room and began shouting while pointing toward the dais and the nominee, "Filibuster Sotomayor. She's a baby killer," he yelled.

It took several Capitol Police officers to forcibly remove the man, who continued to shout protests, after which Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., again urged members of the public to respect the proceedings.

Jose Serrano (Getty/AFP/Stan Honda)

But Latino lawmakers and advocates have become fixtures inside and outside the hearing room in the Senate Hart Office Building, conducting interviews with Spanish-language media outlets during breaks in the action.

"This is such a big issue in our community. In fact, there are watching-parties back home," said Jose E. Serrano, the New York Democrat who is is the most senior member of Congress of Puerto Rican descent.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah sparred before the lunch break over the issue of nunchakus.

Well, more accurately, they argued about guns and the scope of the Second Amendment. But the martial arts weapon was part of the discussion.

Hatch pressed Sotomayor to defend her legal reasoning earlier this year in Maloney v. Cuomo. She was part of a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that issued a short, unsigned opinion rejecting a defendant's claim that a New York state ban on nunchakus violated a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Hatch contended that the ruling endorsed a "very permissive legal standard" under which "virtually any state or local weapons ban would be permissible."

Democrat Dianne Feinstein applauded Sonia Sotomayor for not losing her cool amid questioning from Republicans about cases in which she has ruled as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

The California senator's comments came just after GOP Sen. Orrin G. Hatch questioned Sotomayor about her ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano, a case involving a reverse discrimination lawsuit brought by New Haven, Conn., firefighters.

"I must say that if there is a test for judicial temperament, you passed it with an A-plus," Feinstein said, adding that she'd "wanted to respond" directly to Hatch at one point because her "adrenaline was moving along."

Pennsylvania Democrat Arlen Specter might be wishing this morning that he had not lost his seniority on the Judiciary Committee.

Democrat Herb Kohl of Wisconsin now outranks Specter and this morning stole a little bit of Specter's thunder when he became the first senator to ask Sotomayor publicly to share her views on allowing Supreme Court proceedings to be televised, an issue long near and dear to Specter.

Sotomayor said she has had "positive experiences" with cameras in courtrooms and suggested she was open to allowing cameras into the Supreme Court.

Benjamin Cardozo

Responding to a question from Herb Kohl, D-Wis., Sotomayor said she identified with Cardozo, who served on the high court for just six years prior to his death in 1938, because he approached cases as she does, on "a case-by-case application of law."

Sotomayor declined to state a preference for any of the current Supreme Court justices, saying she did not want to suggest that she would be a "clone" of any of those jurists.

"I wish to describe just myself," she said.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions today lobbed the opening shot at Sonia Sotomayor, grilling her about her ability to be an impartial justice.

Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, pressed Sotomayor to explain what he characterized as inconsistencies between her previous statements and her pledge Monday to "fidelity to the law."

Sessions, who cut off Sotomayor at one point as she attempted to answer a question, said he was "very concerned" that her testimony was "inconsistent" with some of her past statements. He cited a comment she made before a Duke Law School panel in 2005 in which she said "the court of appeals is where policy is made."

Sonia Sotomayor told the Judiciary Committee that her much-maligned "wise Latina" comment has been taken out of context by her critics.

"The context of the words I spoke have created a misunderstanding ... I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge regardless of their background or life experiences," Sotomayor said in response to a pre-emptive question from Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt.

Facing questions for the first time, the nominee explained her comment - which she repeated in speeches over the years - as an attempt to inspire young Latina women.

Sonia Sotomayor fielded her first question from the Judiciary Committee this morning - and it was a softball.

Patrick Leahy (Getty Images)

Leahy asked Sotomayor what qualities she thought a judge should possess, a question which gave the nominee broad latitude to tout her credentials and begin to stave off Republican criticism that she would be too activist from the bench.

A crowd stretched around the corner outside of Hart 216 this morning as members of the public waited to snag a seat for day two of the Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings.

The hearing room in the Senate Hart Office Building (Getty Images/Alex Wong)

Today's proceedings will launch the first of two rounds of questioning, with each of the Judiciary Committee's 19 members granted 30 minutes to question the nominee, beginning with Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., followed by ranking Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama. The first round of questions, which will alternate between Democratic and Republican senators until all of the Republicans have had their turn, is expected to bleed into Wednesday. By then, Democrats Amy Klobuchar, Ted Kaufman, Arlen Specter and Al Franken are likely to be given a chance to ask their first questions.

Norma McCorvey speaks on the steps of the Supreme Court in 2005, urging that Roe v. Wade be reversed. (Getty Images/Travis Lindquist)

McCorvey, 61, is opposed to abortion now and wants the Supreme Court ruling in her case overturned. She was removed from the Hart Senate Office Building hearing room after shouting, "You're wrong, Sotomayor. You're wrong about abortion."

Her outburst, and those of three other protesters, briefly interrupted opening statements by senators. All four protesters were charged with unlawful conduct for disrupting congressional proceedings and later were released from custody.

Tom Coburn (CQ/Scott J. Ferrell)

Coburn, who got choked up as he decried politics’ intrusion into the judicial system during his opening statement at Chief Justice John Roberts’ 2005 confirmation hearing, was all business Monday when he made introductory remarks at Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing.

“If resumes and judicial history were all that we went by, we wouldn’t be needing to have this hearing,” said Coburn, who - as the least-senior GOP member of the Judiciary Committee - hammered home a recurrent theme of the Republican members of the panel.

The opening day of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing is over. The spin war, however, has just begun.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, left the hearing room Monday and took a series of on-air questions from broadcast journalists set up just outside hearing Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Sessions said Sotomayor's statement was "pretty good." But asked about her pledge of "fidelity to the law," the senator remained skeptical about whether her rhetoric matches her record.

"If that had been her statement, I think, over the last 15 years, I think there would be a lot less problems," he said.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy adjourned the first day of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing about 3 p.m.

The hearing will resume at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, when senators will begin the first round of questions, in which they each will have 30 minutes to lob inquiries at the nominee.

The hearing broke after nearly four hours of opening statements from committee members, capped by Sotomayor's prepared statement to the panel. Leahy, D-Vt., thanked Sotomayor for her statement, and added, "I look at the fact of your family, they appreciate it. We all do."

Sotomayor appeared to chat briefly with Leahy and several other senators before leaving the hearing room.

For weeks, Democrats have been touting the hardscrabble life story of Sonia Sotomayor.

Today, she got to speak for herself.

Sotomayor began her opening statement at 2:55 p.m., talking about how her family - particularly her mother - aided her rise from a Bronx housing project to the upper echelons of the judicial system.

On paper, Sen. Amy Klobuchar has a few things in common with Sonia Sotomayor.

Both are women (obviously). And both are former prosecutors.

But what's becoming subtly apparent is that Klobuchar - one of two women on the Judiciary Committee and the panel's only female lawyer - is leading the charge among women senators for Sotomayor's confirmation.

Klobuchar noted that Sotomayor is just the third woman in history to be nominated to the high court, and recalled the challenges that the previous women nominees have faced.

Judiciary Committee members relied on a handful of pre-cooked jokes to bring some levity to a largely monotonous day of opening statements Monday. But the one professional funnyman among them tried hard to show his serious side.

Comedian-turned politician Al Franken, the Senate's most recently sworn in member, took a sober tack during his opening statement Monday, seeking to demonstrate that he deserves his seat on the Judiciary Committee.

"My first major responsibility is here at this historic confirmation hearing," Franken said, adding that he was humbled to join the panel.

Americans favor Senate confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor by 53 to 33 percent, according to a Gallup poll conducted July 10-12. Thirteen percent had no opinion.

A CBS News poll conducted July 9-12 said 30 percent believed Sotomayor should be confirmed compared to 14 percent who disagreed, but 52 percent responded that they couldn't say yet.

When it comes to whether the public views her favorably or not, a different question than whether she should be confirmed, the CBS survey says 62 percent of the public are undecided or haven't heard enough. For the rest, 23 percent see her favorable and 15 percent do not.

Arlen Specter regularly groused about sparse attendance at Senate Judiciary Committee meetings when he was the chairman.

But he was in no hurry to show up today, now that he's been relegated to the second-most-junior slot among Democrats. (He outranks only Minnesota's newly minted senator, Al Franken.)

Specter finally appeared when the committee resumed for a post-lunch session at 2 p.m. Specter is one of four junior Democrats who will speak before Sotomayor delivers her opening statement.

Because the Democrats enjoy a 12-7 majority, those Democrats will speak without having to alternate with any Republicans.

Delaware Democrat Ted Kaufman is in his first term as a senator but has plenty of experience when it comes to Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

As the longtime chief of staff to the senator he succeeded, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Kaufman was involved in many previous confirmations dating back at least to the 1981 hearing for former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Kaufman says the one lesson he's learned about these hearings is that it's really not possible to come up with the "gotcha" question no matter how hard you try. (Not that he has any intention of trying with Sotomayor.)

Jon Kyl (CQ/Ryan Kelly)

Case in point: Minority Whip Jon Kyl chose the words of a Latino appeals court judge during his opening statement to try to make his case for judicial restraint.

Kyl contrasted Sotomayor's now-famous "wise Latina" comment to comments made by Richard Paez, who overcame Republican resistance to be confirmed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999.

A second protester interrupted a Democratic senator's opening statement yelling, "abortion is murder" in both English and Spanish.

As with the first protester, the man was ushered out of the hearing room by Capitol Police and Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., resumed his opening statement.

Durbin wasn't there to witness the first protest. He arrived at the hearing roughly two and a half hours late.

John Cornyn (CQ/Scott J. Ferrell)

Texas Republican John Cornyn tried a different sports metaphor during his opening statement as he made the point that as a Supreme Court justice, she would have more room to make law rather than interpret it than in her current job as an intermediate appellate judge.

"To borrow a football analogy, a lower court judge is like the quarterback who executes the plays - not the coach who calls the plays," Cornyn said. "That means many of your cases don't tell us much about your judicial philosophy. But a few of your opinions do raise questions - because they suggest the kinds of plays you'd call if you were promoted to the coaching staff. These opinions raise the question: would your steer the Court in the wrong direction - by limiting the rights that generations of Americans have regarded as fundamental?"

Lindsey Graham lived up to his reputation for being plain spoken and generated a few laughs in the process as he delivered his opening statement.

"Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to be confirmed," said Graham, who added, "I don't think you will."

That was the first comment to elicit laughs from the audience - and press table. Sotomayor sat expressionless as she had for the rest of the opening statements.

Graham had opened his statement by responding to Charles E. Schumer by quipping, "I've learned something already: the Schumer conservative standard. We'll see how that works."

Jeff Sessions (CQ/Scott J. Ferrell)

Alabama's Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary panel, zeroed in on President Obama's so-called "empathy standard" early in his opening statement, reprising Republican criticisms that such a standard amounts to judicial activism.

"I'm afraid our system will only be further corrupted as a result of President Obama's views that, in tough cases, the critical ingredient for a judge is 'the depth and breadth of one's empathy,' Sessions said. "Like the American people, I have watched this for a number of years, and I fear this 'empathy standard' is another step down the road to a liberal activist, results-oriented and relativistic world."

Arlen Specter (CQ/Ryan Kelly)

Specter, who left the Republican party April 28 to run for re-election as a Democrat, customarily showed up early for Judiciary Committee hearings when he chaired the panel in the 109th Congress - a practice he continued as the committee's ranking Republican during the 110th and the first four months of the 111th Congress.

Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor listens to opening statements during her confirmation hearings . (Getty Images/Alex Wong)

Still photographers resembled paparazzi as they jockeyed to snap a shot of Sotomayor as she made her way into the hearing room, which was filled nearly to capacity by reporters seated at six long tables, staff and members of the public, most of whom stood and craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the nominee.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee looked to history in his opening statement as he set out to defuse potential criticism of Sotomayor.

Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., noted "Those who break barriers often face the added burden of overcoming prejudice."

He cited the experience of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American justice who, when nominated to the high court by President Johnson in 1967, was "asked questions designed to embarrass him, questions such as 'Are you prejudiced against the white people of the South?' "

Leahy also spoke of Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish American nominated to the high court, whose confirmation hearing "was a struggle rife with anti-Semitism and charges that he was a 'radical.' "

Kirsten Gillibrand (Getty Images)

Gillibrand, an appointed senator who could face a tough road to re-election in 2010, is going to introduce home-state nominee Sonia Sotomayor Monday afternoon at Sotomayor's confirmation hearing (along with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., a Judiciary Committee member who was tasked with helping to shepherd Sotomayor's nomination through the Senate).

Russell Laine

That's why it's no accident that sitting in the third row directly behind Sonia Sotomayor is a uniformed police chief, who can help leave the impression law enforcement is behind her.

The prominent seat is occupied by Russell B. Laine, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Chief of Police in Algonquin, Ill.

Sitting directly behind Sotomayor is Sotomayor's mother and brother. Choice seats were also reserved for her colleagues on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and four members of Congress: New York Democrats Jose E. Serrano and Nydia M. Velazquez, and Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas.

John Kyl talked about Sonia Sotomayor's poll numbers. (Getty)

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl on Sunday seized on a two-week old poll demonstrating a decline in public support for Sotomayor.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Kyl, R-Ariz., cited the Rasmussen Reports survey, conducted in the 48 hours following the Supreme Court's June 29 ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano. The high court overturned a decision Sotomayor had joined in a high-profile reverse discrimination case involving 19 white New Haven firefighters.

Frank Ricci, the New Haven firefighter whose employment discrimination case is central to the Republican case against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, will testify at her confirmation hearing next week.

Ricci is one of 14 witnesses who will testify at the invitation of Republicans, after Sotomayor finishes at least two days of questioning by the panel. Republicans have touted the Supreme Court's recent reversal of a 2nd Circuit decision in which Sotomayor participated. Sotomayor and two other judges upheld a district court dismissal of a discrimination case brought by Ricci and several other New Haven firefighters.

Ben Vargas, a Hispanic firefighter who participated in the lawsuit with Ricci and several others, is another GOP witnesses.

Former directors of a Latino legal advocacy group have attacked Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions' emphasis on the group's work as a means to criticize Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

In a letter, 11 former board members underscored that Sotomayor did not play a substantive role in the group's day-to-day activities, nor in the lawsuits it waged on behalf of Puerto Ricans.

"Neither the board as a whole nor any individual member selects any litigation to be undertaken or controls ongoing litigation," the former board members wrote.

Sotomayor served on the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund -- now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF -- from 1980 to 1992. Sessions and other Republicans have reached back past Sotomayor's subsequent 17 years as a federal judge to try to find something explosive in the group's history to hang around Sotomayor's neck.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has received the American Bar Association's highest rating, according to a letter released Tuesday by the White House.

In a brief letter dated July 7, Kim J. Askew, chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary informed the White House that Sotomayor was unanimously ranked "well qualified."

As is customary, the ABA released the ranking but not any of the details of its investigation, which includes extensive interviews and a thorough examination of the nominee's writings in order to evaluate the nominee's integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament.

Conservative activists plan to press Senate Republicans to delay a floor vote on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court until after the August recess.

The Third Branch Conference will send a letter to senators Friday asking that debate on Sotomayor's nomination be postponed until September, said the group's leader, Manuel Miranda.

"It would be a failure of leadership to allow a confirmation vote before the August recess," Miranda said Thursday.

Sam Brownback: Joins Pat Roberts and Jim Inhofe in opposition. (Getty)

"Judge Sotomayor has indicated through past rulings and in her writings that she believes the judiciary should take an activist role and make laws, instead of upholding the law," he said in a speech Wednesday on the Senate floor. "As Chief Justice [John G.] Roberts said, a justice should be an impartial umpire, not a player in the game. I am afraid Judge Sotomayor wants to be more of a player than an umpire."

Brownback, who is not running for a third term and is preparing to run for governor back home in Kansas, was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee until this year.

Jeff Sessions meets with Sonia Sotomayor earlier this month. (Getty)

Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said Sotomayor has done "extensive work" for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, an organization he said is "clearly outside the mainstream of [the] American approach to matters" and "has taken some very shocking positions with respect to terrorism."

Sotomayor worked with the public interest legal organization, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF, between 1980 and 1992, serving as a member and president of its board of directors.

As the confirmation hearings approach for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions thinks it's the right time to start talking about what conservatives believe is the role of the courts.

So he went to the Senate floor Wednesday to deliver the first of a planned series of floor speeches outlining that vision.

Sessions is going to deliver such speeches periodically while the nomination of Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is pending. But it remains to be seen whether his speeches will resonate with a public that, in polls, usually has trouble naming very many of the nine justices on the Supreme Court.

Sessions delivered the standard conservative argument about the judiciary -- that judges should confine themselves to interpreting laws rather than legislating from the bench. "Is the judiciary to be a modest one applying the policies that others have enacted, or can it, the judiciary, create new policies that a judge may desire or think is good?" he said.

Dianne Feinstein (Getty)

Feinstein, a senior Democrat on the panel, said at a committee hearing this morning that there was sufficient time before then to review Sotomayor's record.

"Delay for due diligence may be one thing. But delay for the sake of delay is another. And I've got to tell you, candidly, that's what I believe is going on. It's Machiavellian delay," Feinstein said. "It's the way to obfuscate. It's the way to prevent. And it's the way to hope and pray that something is going to surface that the other side can use to bombast this nominee."

The seven Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for more documents to supplement her committee questionnaire.

In a letter to Sotomayor today, the Republicans said that Sotomayor had incompletely answered some questions, and had failed to provide some of the requisite supporting documents.

Among other things, the Republicans wrote that they are concerned that Sotomayor did not provide any drafts, videos or summaries of "more than half" of the speeches and lectures she listed on the questionnaire.

"These are not little itty-bitty matters, they're important matters," Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, said on the Senate floor. "If we're going to move forward in a record-breaking time frame, the least we can expect is complete and full answers for these questions."

Mel Martinez meets today with Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. (Getty)

"I think she's going to be a brilliant jurist on the Supreme Court," said Martinez, who is retiring at the end of next year and is one of two Hispanic senators (The other is Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey.)

Martinez, who spoke with Sotomayor in Spanish at a photo opportunity at the start of their meeting, indicated he would "withhold my ultimate determination" until after the Senate Judiciary hearings.

Nevertheless, Martinez felt comfortable predicting, "I would expect she would be confirmed with good numbers."

Jeff Sessions and Patrick Leahy. (Getty)

Sessions told CQ's Bart Jansen that Leahy took to the floor to announce the hearing will begin July 13 without first speaking with him.

Sessions said Leahy left a message at Sessions' office while he was attending a military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. When Sessions called back, he missed Leahy.

So instead of learning the date first-hand, Sessions said he learned it from media reports.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a longtime friend of the law enforcement community, is hosting an event this morning at which leading law enforcement figures will endorse Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.

Biden is holding the event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House with New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Miami police chief John Timoney, and Joseph Cassilly, president of the National District Attorneys Association, and other law enforcement officials.

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1980s and 1990s, Biden helped steer appropriations toward grant programs for state and local law enforcement officials. Sotomayor used to work for Morgenthau as an assistant D.A.

Meanwhile, the nominee continues her private meetings with senators on Capitol Hill today.

A broken ankle didn't prevent Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor from starting her visits with senators on time on Monday.

Our CQ colleague Bart Jansen reports that Sotomayor arrived at the office of Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, for her first meeting of the day sporting crutches and a cast from her knee down on her right leg, though still managed to have a high heel shoe on her left foot.

Sotomayor fell and broke a small bone in her ankle Monday morning at La Guardia Airport in New York on her way back to Washington, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. But she isn't letting the injury interfere with her break-neck schedule of meetings on Capitol Hill.

In addition to Grassley, Sotomayor is scheduled to meet with five other senators on Monday: Max Baucus, D-Mont., Kay Hagan, D-N.C., Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., David Vitter, R-La., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is greeted by Sen. Arlen Specter before a meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday. (Getty)

Those speeches, released Thursday as part of Sotomayor's responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee's questionnaire, (to see Sotomayor's responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee click here and here) suggest her widely quoted 2001 speech in which she indicated a "wise Latina" judge might make a better decision was far from a single isolated instance.

A draft version of a October 2003 speech Sotomayor delivered at Seton Hall University stated, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion." That is identical to her October 2001 remarks at the University of California, Berkeley that have become the subject of intense criticism by Republican senators and prompted conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh to label her "racist."

Sen. Lindsey Graham raised concerns Wednesday about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's temperament as a judge, becoming one of the first senators to do so. "There's a temperament problem," said the South Carolina Republican after emerging from a private meeting.

Graham, who is one of seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it was nothing she said during their meeting that concerned him but rather a series of anonymous comments by lawyers published in the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, which provides profiles of sitting judges.

Among the eight anonymous comments included in the section "Lawyers' Evaluation" were ones describing Sotomayor as "a terror on the bench," and "overly aggressive" and suggesting "she behaves in an out of control manner" and "makes inappropriate outbursts."

Patrick J. Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said again Tuesday that conservative attacks on Sonia Sotomayor "makes it imperative" to schedule her confirmation hearing as soon as possible.

Leahy, D-Vt., made a similar point when he appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" on May 31 and it appears that's the argument he will use should he decide to schedule a hearing earlier than Republicans would like.

Leahy said he will meet Wednesday with Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee's top Republican, to talk about timing.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will have a busy Tuesday on Capitol Hill as she is scheduled to meet with 10 senators.

Sotomayor will begin her courtesy calls with private one-on-one meetings with the top two Senate leaders in each party: Majority Leader Harry Reid, Whip Richard Durbin, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip Jon Kyl.

On the Judiciary Committee, she'll meet with chairman Patrick J. Leahy, top Republican Jeff Sessions as well as Orrin G. Hatch and Dianne Feinstein.

In between meetings, Charles E. Schumer, the nominee's home state senator, who has been designated by the White House to help escort her during meetings, will host Sotomayor for lunch along with New York's junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand.

Grover Norquist says there needs to be "adequate time for debate." (Getty)

"We request that you will lead 40 or more Senators to participate in a great debate that highlights all the issues that come to the fore with a Supreme Court nomination," says the letter signed by 121 conservative activists and addressed at the Senate GOP's leadership. "We urge that you mobilize all Republican Members and staffs, and create opportunity for comment and debate, in and out of the Judiciary Committee, on and off the Senate floor, and in and out of Washington, from this moment until the final floor vote."

The letter asks Senate Republicans to reserve the right to filibuster the nomination "so that the debate on the Senate floor is appropriately long and, therefore, suitably catalyzed to the American people."

A demonstrator protests President Obama's opposition to release of detainee photos. (Getty)

The ACLU sought the pictures, which allegedly depict detainee abuse, in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The administration initially agreed to comply with a 2nd Circuit order to turn over the photographs. But earlier this month, President Obama decided not to do so. On May 21, the Senate adopted an amendment to a fiscal 2009 supplemental spending measure that would exempt the photos from the FOIA law.

The government told the 2nd Circuit -- whose members include Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor -- that Solicitor General Elena Kagan has decided if that legislation is not enacted by June 9, the government will petition the Supreme Court to decide the case

Charles Whittaker

President Obama made much of the diversity of her professional experience as a lawyer and judge. Not surprisingly, no one in the Obama administration is in any hurry to draw any parallels to Charles E. Whittaker, the last justice who had served on a federal district court.

Whittaker, who like Sotomayor served as both a federal district court and circuit court judge before joining the Supreme Court in 1957, lasted only five years as a justice before suffering a nervous breakdown and quitting.

Newt Gingrich (Getty)

"White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw," Gingrich wrote. This was preceded by: "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism"

Gingrich was referring to a lecture Sotomayor delivered at the University of California at Berkeley in October 2001 in which she discussed the relationship between her Latina identity and work as a judge.

"I 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," Sotomayor said.

Turns out that President Obama wasn't done touting his Supreme Court pick after his White House announcement today.

The Democratic National Committee posted a video of Obama discussing his choice of 2nd Circuit judge Sonia Sotomayor. Obama made several of the same points about Sotomayor's background and credentials that he did in his East Room speech this morning. An email from Obama touting the video went out to supporters tonight.

"We America, need her on the Supreme Court," Obama said.