The full U.S. Senate is expected to vote on and confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court around 3pm today. 31 Republicans have publicly stated they won't vote for first representative of the fastest growing and largest minority in America, citing concerns with judicial activism, second amendment rights and statements she's made in speeches.

It's the second day of confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor to be a Supreme Court Justice and today should be more interesting than yesterday as Senators will actually ask questions instead of reading statements.
CSPAN and CNN are streaming it live over the web.

Hearings to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court start today at 10a.m. EST. Live coverage will be on CSPAN, PBS (in conjunction with NPR) and MSNBC. Opening statements will probably be all that's covered today, with no witnesses being called.

Sotomayor, baring a sudden reveal of terrible consequences, will be confirmed. What'll be interesting to see is how she performs and in what ways the left and right use the hearings to speak to their own issues. The GOP's talking points boil down to "Sotomayor is empathetic and this clouds her judgement, as witnessed in the New Haven case where all nine justices disagreed with her panels findings and that proves she's bad for the court. Plus she was part of some Puerto Rican group which fought supposed discrimination." The Democrats will essentially be repeating variations of "She has been handcrafted from sunshine, unicorns and rainbows and beyond awesome," with an implicit message to the Republicans of "We double dog dare you to act as retarded as Rush Limbaugh has to a Hispanic female nominee."

Listening to the hearings? Come on in and share your thoughts.

The confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor to be Supreme Court judge begin next Monday, on the 13th. It looks like a virtual shoo-in, but Republicans have been making noises about holding up her nomination or doing something to gum up the proceedings. With that in mind, lets see what Minority leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Jeff Session, ranking member of theSenate Judiciary Committee, said about Sotomayor on the Senate floor on Tuesday. (CSPAN video, about 30 minutes)

The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 for white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who the Court decided were qualified for promotions based on a test they took and passed. The city had thrown out the results because black firefighters did not pass and they feared a discrimination lawsuit.

Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor was one of three judges who had previously ruled again the firefighters in a lower court. This overturning of the ruling has fired up the GOP and given ammunition to their argument that Sotomayor is racist and out of touch. Not so fast says the Daily Kos.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Patrick Leahy (D,) has set a date of July 13th for confirmation hearings on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Nominated by a Democratic President, she'll face her toughest questions from Republican Senators, but the past indicates she can probably handle it.