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."