Democratic Senators say their decision about whether to support Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court is not being swayed by the National Rifle Association's decision to use the vote to evaluate lawmakers.

"I think the fact the NRA is scoring that vote is dumb," said Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who predicted it will have no effect on how Democrats' vote.

"I'll be surprised if she doesn't get everybody's support," McCaskill said.

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee on Thursday became the sixth Senate Republican -- and only member of the GOP leadership -- to announce support for Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Alexander is chairman of the Republican Conference, the No. 3 leadership position for the party in the Senate.

He is the third Southern Republican to support Sotomayor, joining Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mel Martinez of Florida.

After setting aside the impeachment of Samuel B. Kent, Congress can now move onto to the investigation of another federal judge.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 30-0 on Wednesday to grant immunity to eight witnesses in the impeachment inquiry of Judge G. Thomas Porteous, alleged to have lied on bankruptcy financial disclosure forms.

Committee members said the immunity orders for eight witnesses were necessary since some of them had invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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."

Texas Republican John Cornyn announced Friday he will vote against Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court in a Senate floor speech.

Cornyn is the second of the seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to come out against Sotomayor in advance of the panel's July 28 vote. (Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., announced his opposition earlier this week.) A third -- Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- announced his support for the nomination.

Cornyn's decision is hardly a surprise and his floor speech largely tracked the concerns he raised about Sotomayor during her confirmation hearing that began July 13.

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.

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."

Indiana's Richard Lugar on Friday became the first Republican senator to announce he intends to vote in favor of Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

"Judge Sotomayor is clearly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court and she has demonstrated a judicial temperament during her week-long nomination hearing," Lugar said in a statement. "Judge Sotomayor has had a distinguished career of public service. She is well regarded in the legal community and by her peers. I will vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States."

Lugar had also been an early GOP supporter of President Obama's first judicial nominee: fellow Hoosier David Hamilton, tapped for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

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.)

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.

Whether Supreme Court justices should act simply as umpires has been the most debated metaphor ever since Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. invoked it at his 2005 confirmation hearing.

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."

An opponent of abortion rights interrupted the opening statement of Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., by shouting "abortion is murder."

The middle-aged man, who was seated in the two rows reserved for a rotating audience, stood up and shouted, "abortion is murder ... stop the genocide of unborn Latinos."

The unidentified male protester was quickly ushered out of the hearing room by Capitol police officers. Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., admonished the public attendees against making any comments before Feinstein resumed her opening statement.

Update: Four protesters arrested, later released.

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.' "

The choice of who sits behind - and is seen by cameras - at any Supreme Court nominee at their confirmation hearing is a carefully considered decision.

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.

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.