Updated at 5:00 p.m. on June 23.

Senate Republicans today stepped up their criticism of Sonia Sotomayor in a coordinated effort laying out the likely GOP line of questioning at her July 13 confirmation hearing.

In a series of floor speeches, Republicans stopped short of flat opposition, but they repeatedly cited their concerns with "troubling" statements and rulings they will ask Sotomayor to address.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered his first extended comments on Sotomayor by saying criticisms of her for favoring what Republicans label the "empathy standard" and for particular remarks are borne out by her judicial and academic record.

He zeroed in on Sotomayor's comment printed in a 2002 Berkeley Law Journal article that a "wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." McConnell argued that that sentiment is reflected in Sotomayor's subjective reading of the law and "underscores rather than alleviates concerns with this particular approach."

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Excerpts and video from senators' floor speeches after the jump.

McConnell

Judge Sotomayor's writings offer a window into what she believes having empathy for certain groups means when it comes to judging. And I believe that once Americans come to appreciate the real-world consequences of this view, they'll find the empathy standard extremely troubling as a criterion for selecting men and women for the federal bench.

A review of Judge Sotomayor's writings and rulings illustrate the point. Judge Sotomayor's 2002 article in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal has received a good deal of attention already for her troubling assertion that her gender and ethnicity would enable her to reach a 'better' result than a man of a different ethnicity. Her advocates say this assertion was inartful, that it was taken out of context. We've since learned, however, that she has repeatedly made this, or a similar, assertions.

Other comments Judge Sotomayor made in the same law review article underscore, rather than alleviate, concerns with her approach to judging. She questioned the principle that judges should be neutral. And she said that the principle of impartiality is a mere aspiration that she's skeptical judges can achieve 'in all or even in most cases.'

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

NRSC Chairman John Cornyn, R-Texas