• "Sotomayor launched her Senate outreach campaign" Wednesday "through phone calls to key Democrats and Republicans and will begin face-to-face meetings when lawmakers return to the Capitol next week," the Post's 44 blog reports.

• Another Post blog, The Fix, reports on five senators who could play important roles in the upcoming confirmation process but who aren't the main leaders on this issue.

• "Many lawyers and scholars who have examined her record closely say that her" appellate opinions "are unpredictable, and do not put her clearly in a pro- or anti-business camp," the New York Times reports.

• The Wall Street Journal reports on how the concept of "legal realism" factors into Sotomayor's judicial philosophy.

• "In the months leading up to" Sotomayor's selection, "the White House methodically labored to apply lessons from years of nomination battles to control the process and avoid the pitfalls of the past, like appearing to respond to pressure from the party's base or allowing candidates to be chewed up by friendly fire," the New York Times reports.

• If Sotomayor is confirmed, "she will be only the twelfth Roman Catholic justice in history," the Blog of Legal Times reports. "But what is remarkable is that six of those 12, if you include her, will be on the Court that convenes in October."

• The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog conducts a Q&A with Douglas Kmiec, a former GOP White House adviser, on the Catholic factor.

• "Sotomayor, already facing bitter criticism from gun rights advocates for an appeals court decision she joined last January, may have to choose whether to take part when the constitutional issue at stake comes up before the Supreme Court (assuming that she is confirmed)," SCOTUSblog reports. "As of now, the first case in line on that issue is the one on which she ruled as a judge of the Second Circuit Court -- Maloney v. Cuomo."

• "Both parties braced for a summertime confirmation battle over" Sotomayor, "with the White House gathering a team to push her through, and conservative critics sharpening attacks on her past speeches and writings," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• "A perennial subject -- abortion -- surfaced again as a question mark and an emblem of other controversial topics, worrying some traditionally liberal groups that the White House may be too intent on portraying Sotomayor as an independent moderate," the Washington Post reports.

• "Newt Gingrich has called on" Sotomayor "to withdraw her nomination," CQ's Legal Beat reports.

Commentary after the jump