The Judicial Confirmation Network pushed back today after White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., downplayed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's comments in 2005 at Duke University about appellate judges making policy from the bench. Gibbs said critics were taking Sotomayor's words "out of context."

At Duke, Sotomayor said: "Court of Appeals is where policy is made. And I know, and I know this is on tape and I should never say that, because we don't make law, I know.... I'm not promoting it, and I'm not advocating it.... Having said that, the Court of Appeals is where, before the Supreme Court makes the final decision, the law is percolating."

Read more about this over at NationalJournal.com's Under The Influence blog.