3:39pm – The liveblog will continue here with Sen. Chuck Schumer after the short recess.

3:47pm – Sen. Sessions on Sotomayor to reporters: She’s handling herself well “but I don’t agree with her in many ways.” He said she seems to have changed her tune since the “wise Latina” speech, saying something completley different now than she said then.

3:51pm – Everyone is filing back into the hearing room. Leahy has indicated that the hearing could go into the evening hours, so get comfy, folks!

3:52pm – Before resuming the hearing, Leahy took some shots of Sotomayor with his own camera.

3:56pm – Schumer on the “wise Latina” focus: “By focusing of these few statement rather than your extensive record I think some of my colleagues are trying to suggest that you put your experiences and empathies above the rule of law. But your record suggests otherwise.”

4:07pm – Schumer is ticking off a list of cases where Sotomayor’s empathies were contrary to her ruling on the law, saying the focus on her speeches is misplaced.

4:11pm – Schumer: Sotomoyor was neither more liberal or more conservative than her coleagues in immigration cases. Sotomayor said again: “I firmly believe in the fidelity to the law.”

4:20pm – Sotomayor is a Yankees fan, much to the chagrin of Chairman Leahy who roots for the Red Sox (Like DC Dicta, in the interest of full disclosure).

4:22pm – Two ‘oops’ moments: Schumer accidentally referred to Sotomayor as Scalia (???), and Sotomayor said people on Washington have tried to convince her to root for the Senators (We’re sure she meant the Nationals).

4:25pm – Sen. Lindsey Graham asks if Sotomayor is a strict constructionist. She said she doesn’t use labels.

4:29pm – On to Roe. “Is there anything in [the Constitution] written about abortion?” Graham asks. Sotomayor said the Constitutional makes a abroad provision which covers women’s right to privacy, as stated in Roe. Graham doesn’t seem to like tha answer. But still adds “I like you.”

4:31pm – Graham asks about comments that Sotomayor is a “terror on the bench.”

4:33pm – Sotomayor: “I do ask tough questions at oral argument…. When I ask lawyers tough questions it’s to give them an opportunity to explain their positions on both sides and to persuade me that they’re right.” Notes that litigants only get 10 minutes each in 2nd Circuit, the court is known as a hot bench.

4:33pm – Graham: “Do you think you have a temperment problem?” Sotomayor: “No, sir.”

4:35pm – Back to “wise Latina” comment.

4:39pm – Graham: “I’m not going to judge you by that one statement. I just hope you’ll appreciate the world in which we live in, that you can say those things meaning to inspire somebody and still have a chance to get on the Supreme Court. Others could not remotely make that statement and still survive.”

4:40pm – Sotomayor: “I hope we have come in America to a place where we can consider a statement that has been misunderstood and consider it in the context of one’s life.”

4:51pm – DC Dicta had some technical problems for a few minutes, but we are back now. Graham is asking Sotomayor’s views on the death penalty. Sotomayor: “An advocate advocates on behalf of a client that they have – that is a different situation than how a judge has acted.”

4:53pm – Sen. Dick Durbin is up.

5:00pm – Durbin is asking about death penalty. Sotomayor: “As a judge I don’t rule in an abstract. I rule in the context of a case that comes before me…. I have been and am very cautious about expressing personal views since I have been a judge.”

5:10pm – Durbin asks about the Osborne case about prisoners’ access to DNA evidence. (More here on that case from Lawyers USA.) Durbin asks if that was an opportunity to consider the policy of the death penalty. Sotomayor: “The Supreme Court is not a policy making body.”

5:12pm – On powder/crack ratio in sentencing and racial implications. Sotomayor: “I know it’s so unsatisfying for you and other senators when a nominee to the Court doesn’t engage directly with the societal issues that are so important to you both as citizens and senators. [But] for me as a judge … my role is a very different one.”

Durbin decided not to use all his 30 minutes, and everyone loves him for it. Leahy asks that tomorrow senators try to use under 20 minutes if they can. That’s all for today folks! Back tomorrow at 9:30am!

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