Judge Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearings

If what Republican senators wanted was a hot-tempered target to go after in Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayorthis week, what they’ve got so far is a cool customer. Low-key. Deliberate. And devoted, in her statements, to the law.

Is a judge’s heart important, asked Senator John Kyl?
“No, sir,” said Sotomayor. “It’s not the heart… It’s the law.”

And empathy? Feelings?
“We apply law to facts,” she said. “We don’t apply feelings to facts.”

And the hearings go on.

This hour, On Point: pro and con on US Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.Guests:

Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and a legal affairs commentator at Slate.com. Her recent column about the Sotomayor hearings is "Honesty at Last!"

Stephen Carter, Professor of Law at Yale and best-selling novelist. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His latest novel, “Jericho’s Fall,” has just been published. He is also author of non-fiction books such as "The Confirmation Mess: Cleaning up the Federal Appointments Process" and "The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion."

Wendy Long, legal counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, a conservative organization opposed to the Sotomayor nomination. Formerly a litigation partner in the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Long was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and editor of the Northwestern University Law Review, where she graduated law cum laude.